If you’re working all day and night just to afford the next new gadget, you may want to rethink that.

A new study from Study Finds found living a “simpler life” really does make us happier!

They defined “simple life” by breaking it into five different categories:

• Material simplicity.  You don’t buy a lot of stuff you don’t need.
• Self-sufficiency.  For example, cooking most of your meals and growing food in a garden.
• Local procurement.  You buy local whenever you can.
• Resource conservation.  You don’t waste food and repair things instead of replacing them.
• Beneficence.  The most important one…sharing skills, resources and helping build your community. In other words, it means you’re close and generous with your neighbors.

Most of the stuff on the list leads to stronger social bonds and that’s the why they make us happy…the more of a community you have, the happier you’ll be!