New research suggests spending money really can make us happier, as long as we're spending it on making more free time for ourselves – by employing a cleaner or paying to get the car washed, for instance.

最新研究显示花钱可以让我们更快乐，只要把钱花了使得自己有更多空闲时间，比如雇一个清洁工或是把车送去店洗车。

An international team of researchers surveyed 6,271 people across the US, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands, and found the same link between buying time and life satisfaction irrespective¹ of the overall level of income.

一个国际研究团队调查了美国、加拿大、丹麦和荷兰的6271受访者，发现买时间和生活满意度之间也有同样的关系，而且与整体收入水平无关。

study participants were asked whether they spent money to buy themselves free time, and if so how much they spent each month. They were also quizzed on how satisfied they were with their lives and how pressed for time they felt.

研究人员询问参与者们是否会花钱买空闲时间，如果是的话，每个月又是花多少钱。同样，研究人员也调查了他们生活的满意度和平时日程是否紧张。

Across the board, those who spent money to free up time reported greater life satisfaction overall, the researchers report, leading to less time pressure and a better mood.

整个调查显示，那些花了金钱使自己空闲时间更多的受访者整体生活满意度更高，他们在时间上的压力更小，心情也更好。

"The benefits of buying time aren't just for wealthy people," says one of the team, Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia in Canada." To our surprise, we found the same effects across the income spectrum²."

“购买时间带来的益处并不是有钱人的专属，”团队工作人员之一，来自加拿大哥伦比亚大学的伊丽莎白邓恩说道，“让我们吃惊的是，各收入水平群体受到的影响都一样。”

We've also seen studies that suggest the happiness we get from spending money depends on our personalities³ – so there's unlikely to be a one-size-fits-all solution.

我们也见过一些研究，它们显示花钱得来的快乐取决于我们的性格——所以大概不存在单一且万能的解决方案。

This new research also discovered that very few of us make time-saving purchases in our day-to-day lives. Within the sample, 818 millionaires were asked about their spending habits, and almost half of them weren't spending any money on outsourcing time-consuming tasks.

这项新研究发现，我们日常生活中很少有人会通过购买节省时间。通过调查818个百万富翁的花费习惯，几乎半数的人不会花钱外包自己的任务。

In other words even though delegating⁴ tasks and making more time for ourselves is good for our sense of contentment, it's not something we seem all that keen to do.

换句话说，即便将任务分配出去，换来大量空闲时间能增加我们的满足感，我们也不见得喜欢这么做。

One reason could be that paying for a cleaner or to get the shopping delivered makes us feel like we don't have control over our own time, suggest the researchers.

一个原因可能是花钱雇佣一个清洁工或者购买一个配送服务，会让我们失去对自己时间的掌控感，研究人员解释道。

"My take home message is, 'think about it, is there something you hate doing that fills you with dread⁵ and could you pay somebody else to do that for you?'," Dunn told Helen Briggs.

“我的建议是，好好考虑一下，你的生活中是否有你极度不想做而可以花钱让别人帮忙做的事儿？”邓恩告诉海伦记者。

"If so, then science says that's a pretty good use of money."

“如果有，科学告诉我们那该是你花钱的地方。”