The simple habits of people who love their lives are less about mood tricks than about how they spend two things: research finds experiences make us happier than possessions, and that using money to buy back time, not more stuff, reliably raises life satisfaction

The genre of habits of people who love their lives usually offers a checklist of small rituals: morning gratitude, a cold shower, a tidy desk, an early alarm. Some of those help a little. But when researchers look at what actually separates people who report …