You’ve probably heard the saying, “money can’t buy happiness.” But for most of us, it achieves something almost as valuable: it buys peace of mind.
Research consistently shows that financial stress is a common part of everyday life. With ongoing pressure from living costs and economic uncertainty, many households regularly worry about money, with around 70% of New Zealanders saying they’re concerned about money daily, weekly or monthly[1].
When finances are tight, even small setbacks like an unexpected car repair or medical bill can keep you up at night, but this is where money can help most. A financial buffer doesn’t make life perfect, but it does stop everyday inconveniences from becoming emotional crises. As emergency savings grow or high-cost debt reduces, financial shocks still happen, but they no longer derail you.
What money doesn’t automatically provide is fulfilment. Which raises a great question: if money hasn’t made you happier in 2025, why not? And what would need to change for money to help lift your happiness in 2026?
Three ways money probably didn’t make you happy in 2025
1. You compared yourself to everyone else.
Social comparison has always existed, but in recent years it has been amplified. AI travel photos, curated lifestyle posts, and the unending barbecue conversations about someone else’s great investment.
Research has shown that when people see others earning more, even strangers, their happiness declines even if their own income remains steady[2]. In other words, social comparison erodes satisfaction.
In 2025, many investors earned perfectly reasonable returns. But some wondered why their neighbour was bragging about doing better in precious metals or cryptocurrency. In investing, as in nearly every facet of life, there’s always someone doing better. Comparison robs us of appreciating what is, because we imagine what could have been, and rue the gap.
2. You spent money on things, not time.
For many people, 2025 was a year of small upgrades rather than meaningful change. New phones, new wearables, new subscriptions, convenience purchases – these are not inherently bad. In fact, many of them make life easier in practical ways.
The challenge is that material purchases tend to deliver a short-lived ‘lift’. This was confirmed in a decades-long study, illustrating that material purchases increased happiness briefly, but experiences create lasting satisfaction[3]. It explains that experiences and time-based spending, particularly time spent with others or doing things that align with personal interests, create more enduring satisfaction than objects.
If 2025 felt like a year where you ‘bought more but lived the same,’ this may be why. Money was being used to accumulate rather than to create space. And without space, even good things struggle to feel meaningful.
3. You kept chasing ‘more’.
According to Harvard psychologists[4], after a certain point, more income doesn’t reliably increase happiness. This was reinforced in a 2010 study[5] which famously suggested a threshold beyond which an increase in income did not necessarily improve an individual’s emotional well-being. Back then, this threshold was identified as an annual income of around US$75,000.
The findings have been much debated since, but the underlying conclusion generally remains the same – constantly chasing more money to the detriment of life experiences, health, and values often results in less happiness than those who focus on how they use their money.
In a recent example, global wage growth outpaced inflation in many countries in 2025. However, unsurprisingly, happiness didn’t budge[6]. More money, yet the same emotional flatline. We are generally good at earning, but we are less good at pausing to consider how money is meant to serve our lives.
Three ways money might make you happy in 2026
Now for the hopeful side. Money may not buy happiness directly, but when used intentionally, it can increase fulfilment and support a satisfying life.
These are three of the most effective ways:
1. Use money to buy time (the most valuable currency).
Time is one of our scarcest resources. Warren Buffett said in a CNBC interview from 2017, “I can buy anything I want, but I can’t buy time”.
But maybe he’s wrong. When researchers at the University of British Columbia surveyed 6,000 people across the world [7], they found one clear pattern:
- People who use money to gain time (i.e. less commuting, more rest, fewer chores) are happier than people who use money to gain things.
- Buying time reduces stress and increases life satisfaction, creating mental space.
In 2026, ask yourself this simple question: “Does this purchase give me more hours doing what matters?”
If the answer is yes, it’s likely to increase your happiness. If not, it’s probably noise.
2. Use money to deepen relationships (the strongest driver of wellbeing).
In the longest-running study on happiness[8] , it is very clear – the quality of your relationships is the single biggest predictor of your well-being.
Money can strengthen those bonds with shared travel, meals with family, weekends with friends, supporting causes together, or time off to be present.
These aren’t just ‘nice’ uses of money. They are life-changing uses of money.
3. Use money to live in alignment with your values.
This is where financial planning and wellbeing meaningfully intersect.
Research shows that when spending aligns with a person’s core values, such as family, faith, generosity, learning or stewardship, happiness increases regardless of income level.
Prosocial spending (e.g. giving to others or supporting meaningful causes) leads to greater happiness[9]. Similarly, intrinsic, value-driven goals (like personal growth or relationships) are more strongly associated with life satisfaction than extrinsic goals like wealth or status[10].
Spending intentionally and in alignment with values creates meaning, which is a significant driver of long-term happiness.
If 2025 was about earning, hedging and getting through, let 2026 be about spending intentionally.
Ask: “What kind of person do I want to be, or aspire to be?”
Then: “Does my money reinforce that?”
Bringing it together
The more time we reflect on this art of living, the clearer a simple truth becomes. Money is a wonderful tool, but a terrible master.
If money didn’t make you substantially happier in 2025, it may not be due to a lack of it.
Rather, it may have been because our expectations, habits and comparisons got in the way.
2026 offers a chance to do things differently.
- To buy time.
- To strengthen relationships.
- To align money with who we want to become.
This is where good financial advice can make a meaningful difference. A trusted adviser helps turn values into structure, and intentions into practical decisions, so money supports your life rather than competes with it.
When used in the service of a good life rather than in the pursuit of a perfect one, money can support happiness in meaningful and lasting ways.
Often, the good life is surprisingly simple.
Less comparison. More connection.
Less chasing. More purpose.
Here’s to a year where money becomes what it is best suited to be: a resource for intentional, human prosperity.
[1] https://blog.fsc.org.nz/media-release-2-may-2024
[2] Luttmer (2005), titled “Neighbors as Negatives: Relative Earnings and Well-Being,” published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics,
[3] Gilovich, T., Kumar, A., & Jampol, L. (2014/2015). A wonderful life: Experiential consumption and the pursuit of happiness. Journal of Consumer Psychology (in press/2014–2015). DOI/link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S105774081400093X
[4] Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), 932. DOI: 10.1126/science.1192439. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21071660/
[5] Kahneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(38), 16489–16493. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1011492107. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1011492107
[6] Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (Eds.) (2024). World Happiness Report 2024: Caring and Sharing: Global analysis of happiness and kindness.
[7] Whilians, A. V., Dunn, E. W., Smeets, P., Bekkers, R., & Norton, M.I. (2017). Buying time promotes happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 114(32) 8523-8527
[8] Harvard Study of Adult Development / Robert Waldinger Example overview: Good genes are nice, but joy is better — Harvard Gazette (2017).
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/
[9] Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Happiness runs in a circular motion: Evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(2), 347-355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9267-5
[10] Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1996). Further examining the American dream: Differential correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22(3), 280-287. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167296223006
Article provided by Consilium.