For minimum and average wage earners, we’d like to imagine how life must be sweet for the rich, thinking that they are in a better place right now and are much happier than us – the latter is true. However, according to a study, it’s not because of the reason we know.
It is easy to assume that the elite and socialites are happier than most of us because they are simply rich. After all, when and how to eat or how to survive aren’t actually a concern or an immediate problem for them.
However, happiness is such a subjective concept that that thought can be hard to sustain, especially now that a study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that it’s not all about money. The research analyzed 800 millionaires and 1,200 representative samples of people in the Netherlands.
The study learned that both an average person and a millionaire allot the same amount of time for leisure (46 percent). While that aspect is similar for the two groups, the difference lies in how they spend those times.
Apparently, millionaires allocate 22 percent of their free time for active tasks, whereas average people only dedicate 15.7 percent of their leisure time for that. These activities include socializing, exercising, praying, volunteering, and focusing on hobbies.
The general population also spends a lot of their free time (30.2 percent) on passive tasks such as watching TV, sleeping, and relaxing, while it is just 24.3 percent for the wealthy. It was also found that although the two groups spend the same amount of time working (16 to 19 percent), the rich ones have more autonomy.
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It is worth noting that this isn’t the first time the correlation between earning money and the use of time has surfaced. The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth author Sarah Stanley Fallaw found that an individual’s thoughts and activities could affect how he/she can build his/her fortune.
In her study that surveyed 600 American millionaires, she found that the rich spend more time and effort on things that could aid their personal growth.
An average person dedicates two hours for reading and two-and-a-half hours to exercise, whereas a rich person allocates five-and-a-half hours and six hours for the same activities, respectively. Plus, the millionaires spend less time on social media and video games than the general population.
Specifically, wealthy Americans only use social media for two-and-a-half hours while the average ones spend a whopping 14 hours for that.