钱可以买来幸福？最新研究：关键看你怎么花
据报道，研究团队对美国、丹麦、加拿大和荷兰6000多名成年人进行了调研，记录参与者每月在购买闲暇时间上花费的金钱，并评估他们的生活满意度、时间压力等。
最新研究表明，用钱来买更多的自由时间，比如请清洁工或厨师以免除家务烦恼，确实能提升幸福度；用钱换取空闲，比起购买物质的东西更能增加人的幸福感。
To Buy Happiness, Spend Money on Saving Time
By Karen Hopkin
We all know money can't buy happiness. But according to a recent study, there may be a loophole[1]. A team of researchers finds that shelling out[2] for services that save time can bring greater feelings of life satisfaction than, say, simply buying more stuff. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
[1]loophole：a small mistake in an agreement or law that gives someone the chance to avoid having to do something （协议或法律的）漏洞，空子，破绽
tax loopholes
税法的漏洞
[2]shell out：to pay or give money for something, usually unwillingly （通常指不情愿地）支付，拿出（钱）
Having shelled out €150 for the tickets, I wasn't going to miss the show.
我忍痛花了50英镑买票，可不会错过演出的。
It's safe to say that most of us regularly feel crunched for time. So much so that we are experiencing what Ashley Whillans of the Harvard Business School, the lead author of the study, describes as a “time famine.” And like any famine, this chronic lack of time takes its toll[3] on our health.
[3]take its/a toll：If something takes its/a toll, it causes suffering, deaths, or damage. 造成损失（或伤亡、破坏）
The problems of the past few months have taken their toll on her health and there are shadows under her eyes.
过去几个月里的问题影响了她的健康，她眼睛出现了黑眼圈。
“When we feel like our to-do lists are longer than the hours that we have time in the day to complete them, we can feel like our life is spiraling out of control, thereby undermining our personal well-being.”
Well, if time is money, Whillans and her team wondered whether money that's used to buy time could offer some relief. Like paying someone else to clean the house, mow the lawn, or deliver the groceries.
To find out, the researchers asked more than 6,000 people from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and the Netherlands to rate their overall satisfaction with life, and to estimate how much money they lay out each month to outsource unenjoyable daily tasks or otherwise purchase some time off.
//对象：美国、加拿大、丹麦、荷兰，6000多人
And they found that respondents who willingly swap funds for free time also report feeling more content—regardless of their income or how many hours they work each week.
//用金钱换时间-->更容易满足、幸福
To follow up, the researchers conducted a smaller experiment in which they gave volunteers forty bucks to buy a little something for themselves. The same participants got another forty dollars that they were told to spend on something that would save them time. And again, buying time was more likely to elevate mood and alleviate anxiety.
//对比实验：花钱买时间 & 花钱买物质
These findings may be hard for some people to, well, buy:
“Even in a sample of 850 millionaires, just over half of our respondents spent money to buy themselves time. These findings link to a broader literature suggesting that we do not always spend money in ways that promote happiness.”
Even when we should know better.
“Personally I know that when I recently moved to a new city I had a lot of errands[4] to run. I had to let my own data convince me that buying time would make my life easier, less stressful and happier.”
[4]errand：a short journey either to take a message or to take or collect something （短程）差事；跑腿
I'll meet you at six, I've got some errands to do/run first.
我将在6点和你见面，我得先去办些事情。
先把购物车清了，压压惊...