Name the 3 best days in your life. I call these a “take a picture” moments in your life. You know it is special and you want to remember every detail of how it felt, where you were, and who you were with when it happened. Maybe it included the birth of a child, falling in love, a spiritual awakening, or maybe the day you beat Cancer? Experiences are what we value most. Your list likely does not include a best day because you bought something, unless maybe it was something like your first home or car.

Name the 3 people you admire the most. These are people that are your role models. Maybe it includes your parents, a U.S. President, Mother Teresa, or someone who gave selflessly. For example, my favorite president was Abraham Lincoln, who was among the presidents with the least amount of personal wealth. If a wealthy person did make the list, it is likely because they were self-made, overcame some adversity, or had some charitable work or idea that created real changes in the world.

We all want to provide for ourselves and our families. Money is an essential resource to survival in our lives. I know I feel very blessed I have been able to do this for my family. There are 3 key money strategies that can change your life.

Live within your means: I admit coming from the “have it now” generation that had easy credit, and instant material satisfaction. The problem is it creates a much greater financial burden for a longer amount of time. The weight of this debt can far outweigh any happiness benefit you thought you were going to have with the nicer car, the bigger house, or leveraging credit cards for nicer things. It can create a downward spiral of interest compiling the debt, or strapped cash flow that makes you feel like you are in some kind of financial slavery. Money is also a key stressor in relationships that I have seen during counseling of couples. The key is not getting into deep debt to start with, but even if you are, there is still hope. I have seen many benefit from Dave Ramsey’s financial recovery classes. Google for them and your local city and chances are they are offered near you or online. Class fees are very modest, and if offered through a church they may even have a way to cover fees if you cannot afford it. An important element of financial health is also a “rainy day” fund in case of emergencies.

Experiences not things: If you do have money within your budget, what should you use it for? Research has shown spending money for experiences adds much more to our happiness than more things. For example, one of the things I really enjoyed and was life/perception changing was my 10 day visit to Europe two years ago. It can be something large like this, or as simple as tickets to a concert, a night out with friends, or buying a book you wanted to read. Life is about living and not objects. One of my recent most enjoyable experiences was a very modest spending day at a local museum of art, followed by a movie and dinner. Your family and friends will also enjoy your “experiences not things” approach as it usually is about sharing those experiences with others.

Giving instead of buying more: There was an interesting article in Psychology Magazine that noted research that shows there is no relationship between wealth and well-being. We all know you need a certain amount of money for meeting life’s basic needs, but this is talking about wealth above that. It also uses as one example that lottery winners were not likely happier than others. Here is the other shocking finding from the study: Not only does additional wealth not likely add to happiness, but giving it away does significantly add to well-being. There are many examples where wealthy people are using their excess wealth to help others. But giving does not have to be on that large scale to help others and give you joy. A larger tip to a waitress you know is a working single mom, sponsor a child in need in another country, volunteer or give to organizations like Habitat for Humanity, or give to a local church or charity. Giving changes how you think about money and changes you. Giving makes you wealthy. Think about it.