Catch this from the Washington Post:

A wealth of data in recent decades has shown that once personal wealth exceeds about $12,000 a year, more money produces virtually no increase in life satisfaction. From 1958 to 1987, for example, income in Japan grew fivefold, but researchers could find no corresponding increase in happiness.

You can’t buy happiness! You’ve heard it before, but science now backs up the old adage.

It’s true. A new car, a new house, a state of the art super-duper highfalutin HDTV screen may create euphoria, but data shows the elation wears off and the consumer once again wants.

Have you ever bought a child a new-fangled toy only to see it plunked in the closet never to be picked up again? How often have adults done the same with toys they purchase?

It’s time to get the right idea of happiness.

Happiness is not a sensual feeling that comes and goes. True happiness is spiritual, a gift of God that we possess as a part of our immortal make-up.

We don’t have to buy something to be happy. We can be happy with or without the thing we’ve been drooling over that probably costs more than we can afford anyway.

“Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love,” Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health.

Jesus said, “Follow me.” The path he trod was not a gold-paved road down to the local bank. He led his followers to Spirit—to eternal happiness.

How do we find permanent joy? Not through spending hordes of money and racking up burdensome debt. We find true happiness in getting to know God better and appreciating the good we already have.

It’s a lot easier on the pocketbook.