I enjoy baseball and I like cheering for the hometown team. So my son and I decided to attend an evening of postseason baseball this week when the Arizona Diamondbacks hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers.
If you follow baseball, you know the Diamondbacks lost the game… and the series… and their season ended that night. In that regard, the night was a bummer. But in every other way, the evening was close to perfect.
The crowd was boisterous. The weather was amazing. The food was delicious. And the conversation was stellar.
We make choices every day with our financial resources. But this particular night of baseball was a helpful reminder to me that experiences are almost always a better investment than things.
Consider the reasons:
Experiences result in greater happiness. According to research, experiences result in longer-lasting happiness than material possessions. This is the case for several reasons (including some listed below). But in the article provided, the driving argument is that humans quickly adapt to their external surroundings. As a result, the happiness provided by new material possessions is short-lived. Over time, people’s satisfaction with the things they buy decreases, whereas their satisfaction with experiences over time increases.
Experiences provide better memories. One reason I enjoy baseball so much, is undoubtedly, because of the many memories I have watching it with my father. Growing up in South Dakota, an annual trip with the family to watch the Minnesota Twins play was a highlight of summer. Decades later, I look back on those moments with great joy and fondness. I remember them far better than almost any of the physical gifts I received as a child.
Experiences result in less clutter. Most physical possessions eventually become a burden on our lives. They take up physical space in our homes and mental space in our minds. They require care, attention, maintenance, organization. Experiences, on the other hand, are accompanied with little to no physical baggage. The only thing I brought home with me from the game were a few photos on my phone.
Experiences provide greater opportunity to connect with other people. This is the nature of experiencing things with others. Because we enjoy time together around a common purpose and activity for an extended period of time, we are afforded numerous opportunities to talk and connect with one another. My son enjoyed the game on the field, so did I. But I also enjoyed the opportunity to simply talk and connect about school and sports and friendships.
Experiences result in greater mindfulness. In 2010, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert published an important study in Science magazine. Their research concluded that “a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.” And the greater a person’s ability to “stay present” in a given moment, the greater happiness they experience during and after. Experiences provide greater opportunity in this regard. In fact, to discover more helpful techniques about how to stay present in the experiences of life, read How to Make Good Moments Last Longer by Allison Niebes-Davis, PhD.
Experiences result in less comparison with others. According to research done by Ryan T. Howell and Graham Hill, another significant reason experiences result in more happiness than material possessions is because experiences result in less comparison with others. Or, as they put it, “It’s easier to feature-compare material goods (how many carats is your ring? how fast is your laptop’s CPU?) than experiences. And since it’s easier to compare, people do so.” This doesn’t mean, of course, that comparisons don’t still occur at events (“I wish I had that guy’s seats!”). But overall, both during and after, we are less inclined to compare with others the experiences we enjoy than the material possessions we own.
When we first began pursuing minimalism nine years ago, I remember asking myself what might I begin to do with the newfound benefits of owning less. If we were no longer purchasing, pursuing, and caring for excess possessions in life, what might we do with the excess money, time, and energy?
Over the years, we’ve been able to do a lot. But enjoying memorable experiences together as a family is certainly near the top of the list of my favorite.
Compared to buying more things, I’ll take enjoying memorable experiences any day. Even if my team did lose on Monday night.
I completely agree with this perspective! Experiences create lasting memories and connections that things just can’t provide. It’s incredible how a simple trip or adventure can shape our lives and enrich our relationships. Thanks for sharing this insightful post!
What about material possessions used to have experiences? This is where it gets tricky for me. A comment here mentioned driving a new car as the material possession, but what if one genuinely enjoys the experience of driving the car versus the experience of the flight? I guess I just answered my own question. As long as the experience is the leading deciding factor. Feeling lifted up, rather than weighed down.
The problem becomes when the material possessions actually keep you for the experiences rather than allowing you to have them.
Experiences can be cheap, not necessarily camping trips or vacations. I grew up in Washington, DC area and I now live in Pennsylvania. Every time I return to DC suburbs, we always go for a ride on GW Parkway. It is nostalgic. I could be in a jalopy, but doesn’t matter, the views and memories from driving under the majestic green trees in summer always gets to me.
You’re so right. Experiences, as opposed to possessions, do make you happier.
The novelty of a new car (to drive to Florida and back) will eventually wear off. Then there’s the insurance and maintenance. Also, it takes three days to get to Florida on the Interstate highways, and another three days to get back home. That’s about half of your spring break taken up by being on the road.
However, buying return-fare airplane tickets gets you to and from Florida much quicker. The length of a flight is three to six hours, that’s if it’s connecting flights. Then,
you could spend more days and nights in Florida.
Besides your stay in Florida, the flights are an experience. Aboard the airplane, you meet interesting people, and eat good food, and maybe wash it down with a glass of wine
Thanks for the article and comments. Reading this has made my day, as I began thinking back on all the experiences I’ve had throughout my life. I agree that the things themselves can bring one short lived pleasure yet, that can change depending on what the experience you’ve had with that “thing.” For instance, I’ve owned a couple of Corvettes and although that in itself can result in some pride (puffiness,) it’s the experiences, we’ve had with them that bring a smile to your face. Like the time my wife and I were on a road trip out West tooling along with the car’s top down and driving through rain. If you kept the speed up and the rain was not too hard, the drops would just go over us. Makes me smile every time I think of it. Memories!
Don’t you think that one of the most important reasons to collect experiences over things, is that in the final outcome you will be able to say “I did that”? Your history will stay in the minds, but Ferrari will corrode over time.
I have been teaching that experiences are better than things for decades and of course various religious and philosophical texts have brought the message for centuries. For example:
Matthew 6:19-21 King James Version
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
You can be relieved of your things but no one can take your experience. “Heaven” in my world is peace of mind created by
the absence of “things”.
I have to add a P.S. to the previous comment I made about this subject. I believe people who talk about experiences are more interesting to talk to than people who talk about things. Recently I had a couple of hours of free time. I could have gone shopping and bought a new pair of shoes. I would come home and show them to my husband and he would say “Great shoes!” and that would have been the end of the conversation. Instead I decided to go to a Fall festival in a near-by neighborhood. While I was waiting in line at a food truck, I heard sirens and saw a police car flashing its lights headed our way. I thought for sure he was going to turn before he reached us, but NO! it turned into a high speed car chase that went right through the middle of the road where the food trucks were lined up on either side of the street! It was just like a car chase in the movies. I had to hide behind the food truck for protection. Luckily, the event had just started, so there weren’t very many people there yet, and no one was hurt. Anyway, this incident and many more observations during the Fall festival made for much more interesting topics of discussion than a new pair of shoes.
I really like how you concluded.
“Compared to buying more things, I’ll take enjoying memorable experiences any day. Even if my team did lose on Monday night.”
That – even if your team lost, you would still choose “experience over buying things / material possessions”, I really like that.
I guess that would be my choice too.
Also, earlier you mentioned that “what you remember most is the time spent with your dad watching the game, or in general, instead of remembering the gifts that he gave you”
I agree, material possessions is not what we remember about when we remember about a person or an experience..
Recently, a friend of mine told me that “In the end, people will not remember you for your material possessions / material success, instead they will remember you for how you made them feel”.
So, I kind of correlate with you in a way when you talk of the memories with your dad… as its more about the experience and experience is more about feelings, which then stays as a memory in our minds.