Like a traditional 401(k), but instead of financial investments, we can make happiness deposits into our happiness 401(k) that will yield great returns in our 70s and 80s.  And, like any investment, it’s never too early or too late to start.  This is part 1 of the 3 part Happiness 401(k) series. 

Transcript:

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2 minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and as we approach tax day here in the US, I’ve been reflecting about what makes me the most happy and am I investing in the right things for the long term fulfilled happiness I’m after.    

Arthur Brooks, Atlantic contributing editor and professor at Harvard says “Each of us has something like a “Happiness 401(k)” that we invest in when we are young, and that we get to enjoy when we are old. And just as financial planners advise their clients to engage in specific behaviors—make your saving automatic; think twice before buying that boat—we can all teach ourselves to do some very specific things at any age to make our last decades much, much happier.” 

Wow, this is great news, right? 

This brings us back to a Harvard study we’ve talked about before on this podcast.  It’s where Harvard started following a group of men from Harvard in 1938 from youth to adulthood, asking every so often their happiness scale, among other things to understand their well-being.  They all had different walks of life, relationships, life goals.  The study has evolved and the participants have expanded to more than just men from Harvard. As this study has evolved and the participants have aged, the researchers began to categorize people on a spectrum of “happy-well” or “sad-sick”.  Indicating that physical health was a clear determining factor in someone's happiness.  

As the researchers dove in, they discovered the happy-well senior citizens did have some resources that were out of their control, generational wealth, good DNA, long-lived ancestors.  But what is fascinating is that some of this is under our control and as Arthur Brooks says, “[this] can teach us a great deal about how to plan for late-life happy-wellness.” 

Using this treasure trove of data from the Harvard study, two researchers showed in 2001 that we can control seven buckets that fill our happiness 401(k), they are: smoking, drinking alcohol, body weight, exercise, emotional resilience, education (lifelong learning), and relationships. 

Tomorrow we’ll talk about how to fill these buckets. So don’t miss it.  Make sure you are subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts.  

This episode  was inspired by: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/02/happiness-age-investment/622818/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11384887/ 

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