What Does It Mean To Be Affluent?

Professor Ashley Whillans points out that there's more than one answer

What does the word “affluence” mean? For most people, this is a financial concept. But academics have developed an idea called “time affluence.” In short, it acknowledges that money isn’t everything. Free time, in fact, is critically important and a key determinant of happiness.

According to Ashley Whillans, author of Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life, eighty percent of working Americans feel time-starved.

What is the solution? To be sure, you could change jobs. But that’s not always an option. If there are ways to outsource tasks in your life, though, you may find it’s easily worth the cost to increase your time affluence.

To learn more, check out Professor Whillans’s TED Talk.