The Magic of Maxims—Part 2

(Over the last several years I’ve become far better at navigating life than I once was. I began to see clearly when I finally settled upon, and began consistently applying, a few Life Maxims—simple rules useful in guiding decisions and making sense of the actions of others.  

These rules are not infallible, but I find that they work around 70 to 80 percent of the time.  When they are wrong, they are wrong in ways that don’t cause much harm.  But when they are right, they have massive benefits and/or prevent severe harm.  

In hopes that my experience with these Maxims might benefit others, I’ve decided to publish a series posts describing them and how I apply them. This is Part 2 of that series.)

Maxim 1 reminds us to “never risk a lot for a little.”  And Maxim 2 emphasizes that what  whether something qualifies as “a lot” or “a little” depends upon its additional usefulness (its “marginal utility”) to the person making the decision.  

Maxim 3 simply elaborates upon and clarifies Maxim 2 by noting that:

3. After a certain point, wealth and “things” always have diminishing marginal utility.  Experiences do not.  Prioritize experiences instead.  

The saying that “money can’t buy happiness” isn’t exactly true.  Psychological studies show that income levels and happiness levels are actually very positively correlated up to an annual income level of about $80,000 US dollars per year.  After that, the correlation breaks down, meaning that even higher incomes don’t reliably improve happiness levels.  

Multiple other studies have shown that money spent on things (a second, third or fifth home; cars; boats; extravagant clothes or jewelry; etc.) only very temporarily improves happiness.  However, the happiness boost from spending money on experiences (trips, vacations, a date with one’s beloved, a good movie, etc.) is far longer lasting and in some cases is permanent.  

This seems counterintuitive since “things” are certainly more enduring than fleeting “experiences”, right?  But memories are powerful, and when we reflect back upon enjoyable experiences, we often unconsciously romanticize them.  Very often the romanticized memory brings more joy than even the original experience!  

So, when it comes to impacting happiness, pleasant experiences have stable or even positive marginal utility while things do not.  Said another way, more money and more stuff does not equate to more happiness.  More delightful experiences does.   

But sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between things and experiences.  For instance, we recently bought an amazing beach home in Puerto Rico.  

![424B855C-7286-4B9A-ADF4-701A9D300543.jpeg]()

This is undoubtedly a “thing”.  However, in accordance with Maxim 3, we chose this specific home specifically for the EXPERIENCES it offers.  For instance, we wake each morning to one of the most amazing beach and ocean views we’ve ever seen.  Every evening we can watch the sunset from our balcony.  The home is centrally located, so we can easily experience walking our daughter to school each morning (and give our dog a walk at the same time).  Dozens of wonderful shops and restaurants, nightlife, our hair stylists, our workout facility, our doctors, the grocery store, etc. are all within easy walking distance of our place.  The home’s convenient location combined with the ease of using Uber means that we only need one car.  

So, while it seems like we bought a thing, what we actually bought was a continuing series of experiences.    

As another example, purchasing jewelry would seem to qualify more as a “thing” than an experience for most people.  And for Cindy it probably is (she often eventually gets bored with a given piece).  However, for me, watching my beautiful woman wear lovely jewelry (it doesn’t even have to be new or expensive) is a never ending source of awe, delight and satisfaction.   It’s that continuing experience that I cherish, not the jewelry itself. ![7281CD53-4718-4427-A383-01BF5CF6BC30.jpeg]()    

A final example:   As we renovate our new home, we are spending what many would consider to be a silly amount of money to install a dog shower (undoubtedly a “thing”) near the side entrance.   Having a dedicated pet shower may seem like an unneeded, exorbitant luxury (and I suppose it is) that violates Maxim 3, but...it doesn’t.  You see, few experiences (sunsets being one of them) delight my Cindy like watching our long-haired dog take “sand baths” on the beach.  While I too enjoy that very much, the neat freak in me lives in a state of constant anxiety over all the sand he’s about to track into our home!  That’s definitely a buzz kill for us both.   If installing a dog shower near the side entrance gives of us hours upon angst-free hours of delightfully watching Nico play at the beach, then it’s money very, very well spent.  

To conclude, always prioritize experiences over things and always judge the value of things by the nature and quality of the continuing experiences they will provide.