(LIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC) Have you ever wondered what it would be like to become a millionaire? Would it make you happy? Can money buy you happiness? Sarah and Lee have just won a million dollars. So, here's the big question ` can money buy you happiness? Nah, not happiness. Freedom. I think the money has definitely made things easier. I think it's helped make our lives happier. Uh, but I don't think it's changed my internal level of happiness. I mean, we're still the same people. (FUNKY UPBEAT MUSIC) Copyright Able 2017 Do you think that money can buy you happiness? Yes. I think it can buy me happiness. I think it would go a long way to making people happier. No, I actually do think it does. Do you think money can buy you happiness? No. No. Money cannot buy you happiness. You need money to have necessities. Once you've got that, I don't think you'd be any happier with any more money. I've got chicken here. Awesome, love. Just over there, thanks. So, this is Sarah and Lee. They won Lotto three months ago. Actually, it's two actors playing Sarah and Lee. We did interview a couple that won Lotto, but they wanted to stay anonymous. Do you know where the pepper is? But everything that follows is exactly what they told us. Tell me about your life before winning Lotto. How well off were you? Not very well off, no. Um, with just one income and a mortgage and a few other bits of debt as well. Yeah, we got by, but there, ya know` there wasn't a lot of nice things. There wasn't trips to restaurants, or, if we did go, then, um, it was hurting next week money-wise. Were you feeling stressed about money? Yeah, I had been struggling for years with money. Um, get quite angry too. Lee bought the tickets online ` just random numbers. The day after the draw, he's sitting on the loo, checking his emails, and discovers he's a millionaire. Sarah was fixing breakfast for the kids, and, yeah, um, showed her the email and then carried on for work. I was like, 'Is this real?' Um, it was just totally numbing. And so you've just won a million bucks and gone to work. How are you feeling? (LAUGHS) I don't know. I` (LAUGHS) I was just probably a bit happier than normal. It didn't take long for it to sink in ` um, you know, how this is gonna change our lives. Can we retire? Can Lee stop working? Um, you know, what does a million dollars mean? But has winning the money changed them? Do they still like the same stuff? Do they still have the same attitude to money that they've had all of their lives? BOTH: Cheers. I hope I stay the same. I mean, I don't get cheap bourbon; I get nice bourbon now. (CHUCKLES) Our spending behaviour and the thoughts that, um, go with spending money, they're still the same before we won. Yeah, I` I can't see it going away either, um, cos it just seems silly to me to blow it on something that's minor. This money means more fun experiences with the family, and I'm trying to keep that as a goal for any spending. I'm just happy if you're happy. Yay. (LAUGHS) Getting more money doesn't really change your level of happiness. You're still you, just with more money. Maybe more important than how much money you have is how you spend it. I'm giving these guys $20 each to spend on themselves. What I want you to do is to go out and spend that completely on yourself. Nothing for anyone else. Has to be just for you. Good luck. MAN: All right, sweet. (LAUGHS) And I'm giving this group $20 to spend on someone else. Good luck. Let's find out who gets the most happiness ` the people who spend money on someone else or the people who spend money on themselves. Let's see how Nathan decides to spend money on himself. Morning, brother. Morning. Nathan, what did you spend the money on? Can I just grab a eggs Benedict, please? A nice eggs Bene for breakfast. That was...good. It was more of a challenge than I thought, actually. But I ended up buying myself a really nice candle. I got some make-up in the end. Yup. I bought a voucher for some online games. LAUGHS: Oh, really? OK. Pretty much, yeah. OK. So out of 10, if zero is unhappy and 10 is completely happy, how happy did that make you? About a six or a seven. If you were to commit to an actual number? Seven. Seven? Seven. Yeah, yeah, pretty good. Say, maybe, a seven. I` I still felt a little bit guilty. I felt that I should be spending it on my family. From zero to 10, how happy did that make you? Maybe a six. Six? Yup. Not as high as I thought. Oh, about a seven. About a seven. I reckon seven. Let's check in with the people spending money on someone else. So, Emma, what did you spend the money on? I spent it on buying coffee and food for a friend, uh, and having a good catch-up. (UPBEAT MUSIC) I spent my money on frozen yogurt for my kids. I spent my money on a little German-to-English phrase book for a mate who's heading over to Germany at the end of the year. How happy did it make you spending money on your friend? Honestly, I'd probably put it at about an eight or so. It was, you know` It's definitely a great feeling spending money on someone else. I would say nine. Nine or 10. How happy did it make you feel spending that money on your kids? Uh, probably an eight. It's pretty` It's up there. Spending money on other people is always` feels good. Uh, 10, definitely. Economically it doesn't make any sense, does it? Because spending money on yourself should feel better, but, actually, spending money on other people feels better. There's something about doing something for someone else that's just kind of cool and just feels a lot better. The people who spent money on others rated their happiness on average nine out of 10. Those spending on themselves rated it 6.75. But are there other ways to buy your way to happiness? The Rose family aren't gazillionaires; they're just a very average Kiwi family. But they reckon they're pretty happy, and they think it has a lot to do with how they spend their money. So is there some kind of secret formula that they've figured out for money and happiness? What kind of sacrifices have you had to make to, kind of, have the life that you have? Yeah, well, we certainly don't spend heaps of money on, you know, like, going out for dinner. We can spend that money on doing stuff. A lot of what you guys do is going out for walks in parks and... Yeah, definitely. They're cheap but so fun. The kids love being able to get into the bush. When there's so much other stuff that we can do on the weekends that's free, we just kind of tend to opt for that. Find a tractor on the back of a trailer kinda thing, you know? (LAUGHS) Looking at the photos, this all looks lovely, but is it`? Like, is it lovely all the time? Like, I've had family holidays that have been a... (LAUGHS) ...total freakin' disaster, and we swore off family holidays forever. Do you have those times as well? Oh yeah. Definitely. Every day! (LAUGHS) Probably once an` At least every hour, someone's got a problem with something. We're just a normal family, you know? We just try and fill it with as many memories as we can. There's unnecessary money spent on holidays where you could spend on doing something else. That's why we say to the kids ` 'Would you rather go to a cafe and spend $100 there and get lunch, 'or should we go to the zoo, take our own lunch and we've got the whole day?' You know? They get the experience, but they` they eat out of the lunchbox. Studies have been done on how best to spend your money once you've paid all the bills. Once you've covered your, kind of, basic expenses, how should you spend your money to maximise happiness? So, what's been shown is that, actually, when you spend money on things, that` that happiness is quite temporary. If you spend money on experiences, then, actually, the memory of that creates a lot longer-term happiness in your mind. One study's showed that happy families spend about 25% of their discretionary income on savings and investment, about 40% on experiences, give away about 10% in the form of gifts or charity, leaving you 25% to spend on stuff. The Rose family's spending pretty much mirrors that of the study. They save 25%, spend 40% on experiences, 20% on giving and 15% on stuff. But, you know, just do whatever works for you. For us, making memories is more important than having something physical to keep, you know? And I think life's too short, you know? Like, things happen, and I'd rather have memories to go out with. I want the kids to look back on their childhood and go, 'Wow. We saw and did so much stuff.' That saying, that money can't buy you happiness, would you agree with that? Yeah, I certainly don't think you need squillions of dollars to have fun as a family. (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) (EXCITED YELLING, SCREAMING) The Rose family find happiness in experiences. But does the way you pay for those experiences have any effect? And how can buying fancy water bring you more happiness? Well, it's about as pure as you can get, quite frankly. 1 A lot of us think that buying stuff can bring us happiness. But sometimes we hate paying for those things, and other times we don't care. So what's the thing that makes spending painful? Ordering something over the internet is relatively easy. Autofill the credit card details, and you're done. It hardly feels like I've spent any money at all. And then a few days later, it arrives. It honestly feels like a present. And at the petrol station, I can literally see every cent disappearing into my car. And it hurts. And when I pay with cash, it hurts even more. I hand over the paper, and it disappears forever. But just how much does paying for things hurt? Good morning, guys. Welcome to Odyssey Sensory Maze. Come on through. Is it possible to see the pain of paying in action? We're going to conduct a small experiment. We've got two groups. One has prepaid a few days beforehand, and the other is going to pay straight afterwards. I'm interested to see if paying in advance or paying straight after you've done something has any effect on how much you say you enjoy the experience. While you're in there, just take your time. The maze is designed to have fun, not really find your way... This group are going to pay after they've done the maze, and just as they hand over their money, I'm going to ask them to rate the experience. WOMAN: Follow me! Now we go this way! Ooh! MAN: This is, like, my dream. There's, like, 50 of me. (YELLING, SCREAMING) Well, we can go this way, though. (LAUGHS) How long were we in there? It's been three weeks (!) So, what's the damage today? So, $15, was it? Yes. Now they've handed over their money, I want them to rate the experience out of 10. I'd say seven. Eight and a half. Probably say seven. I'd go eight. Definitely a strong eight, yeah. They had a great time ` an average rating of 7.6. What happens with the people that paid online a week ago? Will they have more fun? Let's go. Oh wow. Whoo-hoo! (LAUGHS) It'd be pretty fun to come in here and pop them all. (LAUGHS) Whoo! Yay! That was so cool. (LAUGHS) (UPBEAT MUSIC) Out of 10, how would you rate that whole experience? Oh, 10. Definitely. (LAUGHS) 10? (LAUGHS) It was so cool. I've never done anything like that before. I'd say probably eight. I reckon an eight. Like, an eight or a nine. Yeah. It was really fun. So the group that paid straight after the maze rated it 7.6, but the pre-payers averaged 8.7. They had 11% more fun simply by paying in advance. It's the same thing with holidays ` if you pay for your holiday well in advance, then you enjoy the holiday more. Clearly, the way we spend our money can impact on the enjoyment of an experience. Another 10cc of fluid. (MACHINES BEEP) MAN: 10cc. Reaction normal. Forceps. Here's something stranger ` what you think is happening changes how you feel. Expectations alter reality. In the 1950s, surgeons would do operations where they would cut people open and then stitch them up again without actually doing anything. The strange thing is that some of those people got better, and that's because of a thing called the placebo effect, which is kinda like a fake cure that really works. Now, I don't know about you, but I think the placebo effect is pretty cool. I like the idea that I get better just because I think I'm gonna get better. Yeah, thanks. That's, uh` That's good. Feel much better. So how does the placebo effect apply to money? We're gonna get people to sample water at these two testing stations and rate it. One of them is considerably flasher than the other one. It's got trendy glass bottles, actual glasses to drink the water in, some fake glacial ice and even some artwork. The other one is all plastic ` plastic cups, plastic bottles, plastic table. Everything about it is cheap. (CURIOUS MUSIC) The trick is the water at both stations is exactly the same. It's from the tap at our office. In this experiment, the placebo effect means that the expensive-looking water will seem to taste better than the cheap-looking water. But will it? All right, Dean, so, here is our product. So, it's called Arctic Flow. It's a new brand of mineral water. I mean, it's quite an amazing story of how this thing came about ` it was a couple of guys who were tramping... up in the Arctic, and they found a kind of a stream that had mineral water coming from it. So Inuits up in the Arctic Circle... So it's just that purity, and you don't get that chemical aftertaste that you do with tap water. It's just kind of filtered by, you know, a gazillion years of nature. (LIGHT, SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) Well, it's about as pure as you can get, quite frankly. Taste-wise? Yeah, it tastes fresh. Tastes like some clean water. Yeah, it tastes like water. Tastes lovely. From zero to 10, if zero is kind of terrible ` that's tap water ` 10 is the, kind of, purest water that you could ever imagine in terms of taste. Nine and a half. Nine and a half? All right. Awesome. Yeah, I'd give that an eight, I reckon. Eight? Yeah, pretty refreshing. It's good. Nine. My immediate thought's definitely an eight out of 10. Right. Definitely up there. Let's see how people feel about the exact same water presented cheaply. So, uh` So, Winnie, this is the product. Uh, it's called Simply Water. It's, uh, water. Uh, it's bottled locally, I think. Uh, comes from a spring or something. So, what it is ` I'll get you to try it and see what you think. There we go. Thanks. (LIGHT, SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) Hmm. Just, you know` Just tastes like water. Just like water? Tastes like water. I mean, it's water. (LAUGHS) It tastes like water. (BOTH LAUGH) So, like, if you were to rate that from one to 10, what would you give that? Five? So it was just kinda average. The middle, yeah. Wasn't terrible. Probably about a six. Like a...six. I mean, water is water. (LAUGHS) Right, right. Ah, I'd give it an eight. What is it about that water that makes it really good? Um, at the moment I'm just really thirsty. But, no, it's` (BOTH LAUGH) I'd probably put it on five. Five? Yes. OK. Because it's really no different from water. So, um, it's actually tap water. (LAUGHS) And now it's time to let the Arctic Flow drinkers know they were drinking tap water. Have you heard of a thing called the placebo effect? Um, yes. So, what I've just done was very dishonest, and I must apologise. Essentially, that is just tap water. Really? (LAUGHS) Yeah. Mm. What the`? There's no Arctic stuff, there's no glacial stuff` You're kidding me. It's just tap water. Oh, really? So there's two things from this, right? Yes. One is you could go, 'Well, actually, this is how we get fooled into paying more for stuff by marketers.' But the other way of looking at it is you really enjoyed that tap water. So you didn't actually have to go out and pay $15 for fancy water. You can just have tap water, and it's really nice. So you don't have to spend heaps of money to have an amazing experience. You just tell yourself, 'This is gonna be awesome,' and it is. That sounds like the key to life. It is. That's awesome. (LAUGHS) We can increase our happiness without spending more simply by believing something is going to be amazing. Nevertheless, our Nudge Unit wants to help someone buy their way to happiness. (FUNKY UPBEAT MUSIC) 1 (LIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC) 1 Samara likes to make cakes, but she won't replace her old, run-down cake mixer. She's been wanting to buy a new one for years, but she just can't do it. She gets anxious that she's gonna buy the wrong thing or pay the wrong price. Samara's unhappy from buyer's remorse before she buys anything. Can we get her to spend her way to happiness? Are there times when you think that you're too careful with money? I guess it happens all the time, actually. It's not just the cake mixer. It's got to be the sale of the century as she tries to avoid the unhappiness of buying the wrong thing. Samara researched the heck out of their renovations. I feel like most of this year, we've spent our evenings researching to get the best deal. So, you know, we're working during the day, looking after the kids, and sometimes I feel like we're spending hours at night on the internet, making sure we're finding the best suppliers, the best product for the best price. Is the crux of the problem that you're right, that you should be saving money, but it puts a lot of stress and pressure on you to constantly be finding the best deal rather than actually just spending the money and getting it done? Exactly. I mean, the benefits are` are so minuscule. You know, $5 on a $100 shop is nothing, but the stress that it caused afterwards about` fighting about what should have been bought to save money or what shouldn't have been bought at all caused much more unhappiness than the actual spending of the money, really. Samara needs the Nudge Unit ` my hand-picked undercover team that can sort out anyone's money worries. We are ready to do anything at any time to solve the biggest and smallest of financial problems by giving people a little nudge in the right direction. (LAUGHS) I've assembled my team, ready for their mission. Samara basically does the right stuff ` she does look for bargains, but she spends so much time looking for bargains, when she does spend her money, it still doesn't make her happy. So let's see if we can change that. Everyone knows the plan. Let's get to it. We've set up our hidden cameras, and we're about to surprise Samara. Here she is. We're going to see if we can speed up her decisions around money and increase her happiness. Commence game show. Hello, Samara! And welcome to ` Are you ready to play? SOFTLY: Yes. Yes! OK. Samara, how do you normally do with choices? They're a bit overwhelming. The first round is to get her to spend less time agonizing and do more deciding. OK, we have got 36 cupcakes in front of you. You've got 10 seconds to pick your favourite cupcake, starting now. (CLOCK TICKS) And you have found your cupcake. Why'd you pick that one? Oh, that's easy ` it's a food, and I know exactly what food I like, so it's fine. All right. Move it along. Round two. Now it's time for the main attraction, the reason we're here. Can we reduce Samara's unhappiness around spending with some quick decision-making? Are you ready to start round two? Sure. Now, behind me, we've got three options. OK, bring out the mixers. I've heard that you have been wanting to get a cake mixer for a very long time now. Yeah. Option one ` spending hours endlessly researching stuff on the internet. Option number two ` just using your old cake mixer, cos, really, there's nothing wrong with it. Or number three ` this brand-new cake mixer. Which one do you pick? (CLOCK TICKS) Number two. Number two. (BUZZER BLARES) Unfortunately, that is the wrong answer, Samara. Which option do you pick next? (CLOCK TICKS) Number one. (BUZZER BLARES) Unfortunately, that is also the wrong answer. Samara seems determined to avoid decisions and possibly happiness. You've got one more choice, Samara. Which one do you pick? I don't want to, but I have to pick number three. (CHIME TINKLES, CROWD CHEERS) And you win, Samara! You've won yourself a brand-new cake mixer! Thank you, Samara, for playing. Is it really? No. Yeah. It's so expensive, though. (LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE) Great job. Thank you for playing. Thank you. I'm on my way in. So, how long would you spend researching that? It's been years. But I will tell you we did hardly any research at all. You would've spent months researching this and eventually got one, and now you've got one. You probably didn't even research. You just went to the shop. Less than half an hour. (CHUCKLES) This particular research burden has been lifted` Like, it's done. It's over. Less choice, though, is better, right? It's quicker. Cos now you've got the thing. Does that feel like it's a relief that's been lifted off? Well, it means that I don't have to bother with it any more, which is quite nice. Which is nice. Cos it would've gone on for a few more years yet, probably. So you've bought yourself some time. For loads of us, there's anxiety before we spend our hard-earned money, and then there's buyer's remorse afterwards. Sometimes ` just sometimes ` we can give ourselves a break and simply indulge. Can money buy you happiness? Not really. Having a lot more money doesn't make you a lot more happy. But it does relieve stress and make life easier. You can give yourself a short-term happiness upgrade by spending money on others or experiences. And the easiest happiness boost ` telling yourself something's gonna be great makes it great.