There’s an old expression that’s been floating around for decades:

“Money doesn’t buy happiness.”

Or, does it?

Is that just something we say to console ourselves when we don’t have money?

I’ve always believed money doesn’t buy happiness. I’ve paid close attention through the years to those around me and those in the news.

All that I’ve seen and heard verifies money in and of itself had no capability to make us happy.

So I was surprised and also disbelieving of a recent headlined news article with a big headline that shouted: Research shows money does buy happiness.

The author was a Noble prize winner that teamed with a social researcher.

They concluded that for most people money does indeed buy happiness and improves emotional well-being.

I can more easily accept the second part of that premise.

Having money can improve one’s sense of security. But not having to worry about paying the rent or affording health care isn’t happiness.

My father often talked about those who had to make a choice between buying food or paying for their medications. He was among those who had to make that choice.

Yet, whenever I think of my dad I picture his smiling face and his eyes that danced with the joy of life.

He was definitely a happy person. And he was happiest when enjoying nature. He had a little aluminum boat with a cranky motor he added for our fishing trips.

But I’ll tell you this - No one with a big yacht could have enjoyed time on the water more than my dad.

I’m happy to say I inherited Dad’s joy for every simple thing.

That wasn’t true of my brother. Richard kept thinking he would be happier if only he were rich.

My brother was like the character of Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.”

“Lord, who made the lion and the lamb.

You decreed I should be what I am,

Would it spoil some vast eternal plan,

If a were a rich man?”

Truth be told, for years I never saw Richard find long-term joy with anything.

I am so happy to report that on his own he finally did find incredible joy that has lasted over the years.

He found that joy in an old rundown mountain cabin with its own nearby stream. He worked to make it livable, kept it simple, yet never stopped being grateful for it

The generations are repeating themselves as Richard is passing that joy in simple things along to his own daughter.

I am so proud of my brother and so pleased with his newfound version of “wealth.”

On the other hand, I also know some guys who keep buying what they call “new toys.”

A new Jet Ski, exotic vacation or big boat will make them happy for a while. But the joy is unsustainable until it leads them to another new toy.

The latest research shows those who collect such toys are happiest when they can share those toys with others.

I am privileged to have met and interviewed a countless number of incredible people over the years. Many of them stay in my mind and in my heart.

Foremost among those in this category are Mary and Joe, a Pennsylvania couple that had little in the way of material things. But they had riches, the kind of riches that drew me to them and brought me back to their door many times.

One year for his wife’s birthday Joe made her a homemade music box by collecting things he found in a trash landfill.

I never saw a more magical or imaginative music box in my life. Every bit of it was made with love.

There are those whose idea of “having money” is simply to have enough money to pay the bills.

Then there are those who seem to believe there is no such thing as “enough.”

When a friend’s parents passed away she and her siblings each inherited multimillions, multiple properties and businesses. But three years later they are still fighting over who got the parents’ personal effects.

I keep wanting to say, “Hey, how much is enough?” I wish they would value family more than material things.

When I worked at the Times News I was fond of a fellow employee who had his head on straight.

One day someone came with the idea that we would each contribute to buying lottery tickets and would split the jackpot if we won.

Of course we talked about how we would spend the money if we won.

My friend said he absolutely didn’t want to win a pile of money because he didn’t want it to change him. He was happy with his life the way it was.

That brings to mind a study that said it wasn’t the amount of money you had that brought happiness.

It was your sense of gratitude.

Some have a lot of money but not much gratitude.

And others may have little but they are keenly grateful for life and for all it offers them.

Every year more studies will come along detailing what most makes us happy.

I believe it isn’t how much you have. It’s what you do with what you have.

In the long run, happiness may be something impossible to buy and impossible to keep, unless you first cultivate a strong sense of gratitude.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net