How Do The Very Wealthy Choose To Spend Their Time?

While it may be true that money can't buy happiness, scientific research generally finds a positive association between wealth and life satisfaction. In other words, the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to be satisfied with your life.

But why does this association exist? Is it because millionaires have more money to buy the things they want, or does it have to do with the reduction in stress that comes with financial security?

Or, perhaps it is due to something else altogether?

A recent study published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science sheds new light on this interesting question. According to a team of researchers from the United States and the Netherlands, the answer may have a lot to do how wealthy people choose to spend their time. It turns out that even though millionaires spend their time in many of the same ways as the general population (for example, both millionaires and non-millionaires work about the same amount), there are some key differences between the groups that might contribute to the wealth-happiness association.

To study this issue, researchers at Maastricht University, Harvard Business School, and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam distributed an online survey to 863 high net worth individuals and 1,232 non-high net worth individuals (all living in the Netherlands). In the survey, the researchers first asked participants to report their life satisfaction. Next, the researchers asked participants how they spent their time over the last 24 hours. Specifically, participants were asked to indicate, in minutes, how long they spent engaging in activities such as cooking, relaxing, commuting, hobbies, and volunteering.

Armed with this information, the researchers looked for points of similarity and difference in the way high net worth individuals and non-high net worth individuals spent their time. Interestingly, they found fewer differences than they expected. For example, both groups spent approximately the same amount of time engaging in leisure activities, working and commuting, and using their phone and computer.

There were, however, some key differences. For one, although millionaires and non-millionaires enjoyed approximately the same amount of leisure time, millionaires engaged in more active leisure activities (e.g., praying, socializing, exercising, hobbies, and volunteering) while non-millionaires engaged in more passive leisure activities (for example, watching TV, napping and resting, and doing nothing).

The authors suspect that engaging in active leisure pursuits might do more to promote life satisfaction. They state, "More time spent on active leisure is positively related to the life satisfaction of millionaires, while passive leisure is negatively related to life satisfaction. Interestingly, similar results can be observed for the general population, for whom active leisure is also positively related and passive leisure negatively related to life satisfaction."

Another key difference has to do with the type of work millionaires and non-millionaires tend to engage in. The researchers found that millionaires, on average, were more likely to spend time on work activities that offered more personal autonomy (in other words, work that they decided to do themselves instead of following the guidance of others). This, again, was shown to relate to higher life satisfaction.

The authors conclude, "We find that, surprisingly, millionaires spent their time in remarkably similar ways to the general population. Yet they engage in more active leisure and enjoy greater job autonomy than the general population, two aspects that are positively related to life satisfaction."