Can money really buy a lease on happiness?

Do you know why shrinks like working with rich people?

Answer: because they are the only ones who really know that money doesn't guarantee happiness.

Or so goes one of my favorite jokes. But like all jests, there is some truth afoot. There is always the secret suspicion, shared by many, that if money were plentiful, then we would be smiling like Julia Roberts into our sunset years.

I know my peers think about this subject a lot. You would think that as we rounded the corner of life, we would be more concerned about spiritual and generative issues. But there we are: sneaking out to buy our lottery tickets, enduring sinking spells as our Social Security is being put into play or privately worrying about our inadequate retirement funds.

I was curious if the idea that money can purchase happiness is just something that young people think of when they aren't thinking about sex. Or does the wisdom of the years disabuse us of this belief?

I polled my list of correspondents -- ranging in age from the 40s to the 70s -- and discovered that 60 percent said absolutely not, money does not buy happiness. A surprising 40 percent said it could.

One who is definitely in the latter camp is Gordonia, 48: "Yes, it brings complete happiness. One is free to give anything back to the world when one is financially free. There are so many stones at Harry Winston that are just crying out for a good home."

As you might expect, not all of my respondents were so certain in their answers.

For example, "Dallas Dick," 53, told me that happiness comes from settling into a life's work that you enjoy. But, if you can't manage that, then: "What the hell, just do something where you make enough money so that you can afford to be miserable."

Most respondents expressed a respect for money, even if it was conditional. Michael, 57, said simply, "One needs a certain amount of money just to take the edge off."

Another Michael, 59, mentioned the most popular benefit of money: "It does bring security, and the insecurity caused by lack of having enough money to take care of our needs can interfere with an otherwise happy life."

My friend Cherie, 51, really captured the most thematic sentiment of my poll when she said: "Money doesn't bring happiness, but I'd rather be unhappy with it than without it."

She added something else that I heard many times from my respondents: "Some of the unhappiest people I know have money, but the most worried people I know don't. Most of us don't want to be rich, we just want to have 'enough.' Of course, the more you have the higher 'enough' seems to become."

Maybe it is just plain old envy to think rich people aren't really happy. It just may be that Paris Hilton would actually not be happier if she were to truly embrace the "Simple Life."

Let's face it. Rich or not-so-rich, doodoo happens to all. Life is life, whether you drive an Aston-Martin or a Honda Civic.

I have a lot more on this topic next week, including what the more clear-eyed scientists have to say about happiness ... and what really brings it on.

Until then, I leave you with my favorite quote on the subject. I think it was the rocker David Lee Roth who said, "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy you a really big yacht so that you can sail right up next to it."

Dr. Michael O.L. Seabaugh, a Cape Girardeau native, is a clinical psychologist who lives and works in Santa Barbara, Calif. Contact him at mseabaugh@ semissourian.com.