Boosting your happiness is as easy as one, two, three:

1. I've lost track of the number of studies that show that if you want to get the biggest happiness boost from your hard earned paychecks, it pays to spend your money on experiences, rather than material possessions. Going on a vacation, eating out, taking tuba lessons, or taking in a play offer far greater returns on happiness than buying material possessions - all the research is crystal clear on this.

2. Research spearheaded by Elizabeth Dunn at the University of British Columbia looked into the relationship between income, spending, and happiness. Her research has demonstrated time and time again that people who spend a higher percentage of their income on other people are far happier than those who spend it on themselves.

3. Research by Sonja Lyubomirsky and her colleagues found that when people performed five simple non-financial acts of kindness a week (writing a thank you card, donating blood etc.) over the course of six weeks their happiness levels increased, some by as much as an astounding 40%!