List the ten most expensive things (products, services or experiences) that you have ever paid for (including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage ceremonies, divorce settlements and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you have ever bought that gave you the most happiness. Count how many items appear on both lists.
- treadmill
- previous computer
- current computer
- my university degrees
This is hard. There aren't many items I've paid over $1000 for, in my life. There's a few things in the 100s. There are some things in the hundreds, like my dishwasher, or trip to London.
Most Happiness:
- both computers
- dishwasher
- trip to London (including the camera I bought for it)
- my degrees, on good days
- innumerable books, albums, songs, and some movies
One commenter on the site said this:
"Some interesting questions came up:
Paying big tax bills didn’t make me happy, but staying out of jail did.
Paying for accidents and illnesses didn’t make me happy, but not doing so…..
Most of those houses and cars didn’t make me happy, but not having them …?
Grad school didn’t make me happy, but - en passant - it kept me out of Vietnam.
That early retirement was huge. Should each investment that enabled it make the list?
And so on. I suspect that we’d learn more from lists restricted to consumer stuff (plus expeditions!)"
