The conventional wisdom that says “money can’t buy you happiness” is often intended to mean that “spending on material goods can’t buy you happiness” but, in the broader literature, studies commonly pose the empirical question of whether “income is associated with happiness.” Our approach addresses a key underlying question in this research area by investigating what it is that money allows us to acquire (as opposed to other uses of income such as saving or paying down debt) and whether the acquisition of specific goods or services makes us happy.