Choose a vacation over a plasma TV

It's easier to build happiness in your life by investing in a family vacation than a plasma TV. That slick plasma will certainly provide great satisfaction in your TV viewing for years to come, however psychologists advise the memories made on a vacation contribute more to well-being and life satisfaction than any material goods.

Happiness researcher (cool job!) Leaf Van Boven of the University of Colorado at Boulder explained vacation memories improve over time. We forget any annoyances and tend to retain the joyful, positive moments. Also, memory-making experiences build social capital, and social relationships have everything to do with life happiness.

People can get caught in a trap of believing they'll have many years to take special vacations, when they should be investing in them now instead of the plethora of material belongings junking up the garage. Personally, we went camping with two other families we didn't know too well this past July. The memories and friendships cemented during those crazy three days have generated more smiles and warmth than the slick canoe we purchased in June.