In Whillans and Dunn’s 2019 paper “Valuing Time Over Money Predicts Happiness After a Major Life Transition…” they took a sample of graduating college seniors and measured how they value time versus money. They did this by asking participants who they were more like between two hypothetical people (below).
Tina values her time more than her money. She is willing to sacrifice her money to have more time. For example, Tina would rather work fewer hours and make less money, than work more hours and make more money.
Maggie values her money more than her time. She is willing to sacrifice her time to have more money. For example, Maggie would rather work more hours and make more money, than work fewer hours and have more time.
Are you more like Tina or Maggie?
They followed up with participants one year later, after most had started their careers.
They measured their subjective wellbeing. They found that those who valued time over money had higher wellbeing one year later. What’s more, they controlled for other factors (such as initial happiness level) and found that improvements in wellbeing were at least partially explained by one’s preference for time over money at the time of the initial sample.
So one’s preference for time had a meaningful positive effect on his or her happiness later on.
This suggests that when determining your next career move work-life balance should probably be more important than income.
Reference — Whillans, A. V., Macchia, L., & Dunn, E. W. (2019, September 18). Valuing time over money predicts happiness after a major life transition: A preregistered longitudinal study of graduating students. Science Advances, 5(9), eaax2615.
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