Freelancers are happier

If you're thinking of going freelance or setting up your own business this year then consider this. In a study on happiness economist Andrew Oswald a professor at Warwick University in England found that:

"Everything associated with self-employment--independence, autonomy--is also associated with being happy."

I can testify that freelancing and running my own business has made me far happier than I have ever been working for other people. I have far more control over my life than I ever had being in a job on a month's notice. It's certainly hard setting out on your own in the first few years when payments are few and far between. Once you get the first few clients under your belt and establish a reputation then it starts to gets easier.

The Kingdom of Bhutan actually measures this intangible asset with their concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) to take into account quality of life when planning policy:

"While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance."

Sounds very sensible to me. After all the Forbes article that published Oswald's study showed that even economists agree that money doesn't make people happy. More links to Forbes happiness articles.

Happiness image is from Aplia economic news which has some good links for economics students.