Welcome to the Making Margin podcast! Greenway’s team is here to discuss common financial mistakes and to help you navigate them. 

Meet the voices behind Making Margin:

• Nick
• Allie  
• Jeff

Today’s topic is spending on experience vs. things: What’s generally a better use of our money?

• A study conducted by the Harris Group that found out that 72 percent of millennials prefer to spend more money on experiences than on material things.
• Your money and your brain by Jason Zweig - our predictions of what makes us happy are so unreliable. 
  “Take that SUV. When you first drive it off the dealer’s lot, it glistens like a gigantic jewel and feels just as fast and safe and soft and roomy as you had dreamed...In a couple of weeks, that last trace of new car smell is gone….the contrast between your vision of what ownership would be and the reality of what it has turned out to be will become more glaring.”
• Compare that to memories made via experiences. As time goes on, experiences that don’t turn out as we had hoped can still become great memories (assuming everyone survived). You usually can't say the same about a thing that you purchased that didn’t turn out well.

Take Away:

Spending money on experiences over things generally produces more joy in the long run. Planning and saving for those same experiences can also increase the pleasure by minimizing guilt and adding anticipation.