Money spent on others, on experiences and spent generously can contribute to our gross domestic happiness but psychologists warn money "matters less than we think it would."

Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and Michael Norton, a psychologist and assistant professor at Harvard Business School embarked on a series of experiments to test whether spending money on others actually makes us happier than spending it on ourselves.

Dunn and Norton published their results in the journal Science in March 2008. The lesson of their study, says Dunn, is clear. Money makes you most happy if you don't spend it on yourself.

"By that I do not mean give all your money away and live in a shack," she says. "I just mean think about increasing it slightly. Just reallocating as little as $5 on a given day can make a difference in happiness."

Read about their findings and how easy it is to be happier right here.