Money Can’t Buy You Happiness, But Exercise Will Get the Job Done

Guess we should spend that money on a gym membership.

I'm sure we've all heard the phrase "money can't buy happiness" a time or two in our lives. It's supposed to make you realize that what you have is more than enough to make you happy. It's meant to encourage us to not work out lives away just to make a few extra dollars a month. I always joke that money can't buy happiness, but it can buy me coffee or even a vacation that do make me happy so, by default, money makes me happy.

A recent study says that exercise actually makes us happier than money.

Researchers at Yale and Oxford surveyed 1.2 million Americans to draw this conclusion so it's pretty substantial. Results showed an improvement in health and mental health in those who were more active in life. People with sedentary lifestyles reported on average 53 "poor mental health" days, compared to 35 days reported by active individuals. If both groups were making the same salary each year, those who live a sedentary life would need as much as $25,000 more in order to reach the same happiness level as the active people in the survey.

So how much should you be moving? Those same researchers say that you'll need 30-60 minutes of activity three times each week. Ok, I'm not too happy about that number.