Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Does this make sense to you? A recent study found a correlation between living in a sunshine-y area and savings rates. From ScienceDirect.com:
This paper attempts to answer an interesting but empirically challenging question: Do changes in well-being (life satisfaction or happiness) lead to changes in consumption and savings behavior? The paper uses regional sunshine as an instrument for personal happiness using the Dutch Household Survey from the Netherlands. Sunshine improves happiness significantly. Instrumenting happiness with sunshine, happier people are found to save more, spend less, and have a lower marginal propensity to consume. Happier people take more time for making decisions and have more control over expenditures; they expect a longer life and (accordingly) seem more concerned about the future than the present; they also expect less inflation in the future.
Okay. Let's see. Likelihood of sunshine in Riverside County, California? 73%.
And how's Riverside County doing? Not so great. From KCBS.com:
Riverside County had the second-highest foreclosure rate in the state in 2010, a real estate tracking firm reported Thursday.
A total of 55,184 mortgage default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions were recorded countywide last year, down about 21 percent from 2009, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac.
Data showed that 1 in 14 households — about 7 percent of the county’s housing stock — slipped into some stage of foreclosure in 2010.
Sunshine may equal happiness. But happiness doesn't seem to equal money in the bank.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
I believe these results are possible only if you are outside of the state of California, Rob. Hence your confusion.
Jul '11
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Hmmmm.... Does Germany get more sunshine than Greece, Spain and Portugal? Who would have thunk!
Sep '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
I'm happier in the summer months here in Michigan (the weather today is truly lovely) but these are the months when I fly a small plane on the weekends. On a faculty salary, this means not much saving to speak of during these months.
On the other hand, it allows me to fly up to Traverse City in an hour, see the beach and have a great dinner at Amical. So, tradeoffs.
Aug '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Whether this study's a good one or not, it makes sense that happiness goes along with responsible behavior, not only because responsible behavior makes happiness easier, but because a happy attitude makes it easier to be responsible.
When you're habitually unhappy, you often put yourself in a state of learned helplessness (to borrow a phrase from Arthur Brooks). Life stinks and is never gonna get better, so why bother?
When you're habitually happy, on the other hand, you're less likely to make excuses for yourself, less likely to lose your patience with the world and do something foolish... Happy people are apparently kinder on average than unhappy people, and possibly better able to endure hardship:
I forget which branch of the British military found, to its surprise, that boys with middle- and upper-class upbringings accepted the hardships of being a soldier with more cheer than those with very poor upbringings. Presumably a well-fed childhood is happier than a half-starving one, and simply being used to deprivation can't compensate for happiness.
Dennis Prager says happiness is a moral obligation. As a natural-born grouch, I know the truth of this firsthand.
Jul '11
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Midget Faded Rattlesnake:
Dennis Prager says happiness is a moral obligation.
Wow. The Dalai Lama says the purpose of life is to be happy. What a convergence!
May '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Could it be that places full of sunshine tend to have more inexpensive options for entertainment? It's generally free to go to a sunny beach; try finding something as entertaining for free in the middle of a Chicago winter...
Jul '11
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Love it! First world problems : Cost of entertainment influences savings rate.
Sep '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Barkha Herman
Midget Faded Rattlesnake:
Dennis Prager says happiness is a moral obligation.
Wow. The Dalai Lama says the purpose of life is to be happy. What a convergence! · 1 hour ago
Happiness as a given vs. happiness as a moral obligation are almost diametric opposites. The Dalai Lama says that "...happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come." His message is mixed at best.
May '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
If that were true then Las Vegas would be in Minnesota.
Aug '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
Maybe it has to be smog-free sunshine.
Oct '10
Re: Daily Sunshine & Savings Rates
sunshine may equal happiness, but that doesnt translate into better decision making.