In Pursuit of Happiness: How to Guilt Free Spend and be Happy

When it comes to managing our finances, various articles and pages advise us to save first before we spend.  We distinguish needs from wants and rewarding ourselves become partly or totally out of the equation.  But with that in mind, the delaying gratification tactic is a tough waiting game.  YOLOs and majority of the millennials might disagree.  While the mainstream generation X will concur who believes that money can’t buy happiness.

What if YOLOs and majority of the millennials notion truly makes sense?  Actually, there were numerous scholarly articles written linking spending with happiness.  The study of DeLeire and Kalil (2010) found that only one component of consumption is positively related to happiness, that is leisure consumption.  Similarly, greater happiness is achieved from spending time on or with others including acquiring experiences (Mogilner & Norton, 2016).  So, it is not the money that makes us happy but rather on how or where we spend it.

Though spending will make us happy, still we need to save.  Unless we receive GCs, e.g., Sodexo as one of company benefits or incentives, then we could have a guilt-free spending. Whenever I receive GCs from our HR, I usually consume those to shop or buy groceries.  But now, I'm planning to splurge it on things that would give me extraordinary happiness.

I prepared here my personal "to buy list" where Sodexo GCs are also accepted.

• Book that dream travel/flight tickets in Air Asia
• Book hotel accommodation in Raddison Blu Cebu or Pearl of the Pacific Boracay
• Have a staycation with family at Microtel
• Spend time with friends while having coffee at Figaro
• Try ordering at a never dined before restaurant like Lorenzo’s Way
• Have an after office gimmick at Center Stage KTV
• Learn how to skate at SM Ice Skating Rink
• Have that much needed pampering at Nurture Spa Village Tagaytay
• Try extreme rides in Sky Ranch
• Or just watch that much awaited movie at SM Cinemas

GC, e.g., Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services and Guilt-Free Spending:

If employer gives GC instead of cash as rewards, it means they want us to buy something from it.  Therefore as a recipient, all we need to do is exhaust it.  We cannot keep it in bank or alkansya.  And through spending, we might find happiness.  Happy personnel is a happy workplace.  It is a win win situation, both employer and employee will be benefited.

Sodexo GCs have always been and forever will be valid, and that revalidation and replacement are free of charge once the validity date is reached.  Moreover, they have the widest merchant network in the Philippines (see list here).

http://ph.benefits-rewards.sodexo.com/consumers