Money doesn’t buy happiness, but can rent joy

Money doesn't bring happiness - statements like this are often heard from people who 1) already have money and are unhappy (probably being unhappy before) or from people who left (maybe temporarily) the state of having money to pursue something like volunteering or travel. And maybe it is true. However, not entirely true. Money gives you freedom, comfort and opportunities. And that doesn't count for nothing.
Recently backpacking myself, sleeping in dorms, traveling local buses in Central America, often showering in cold water, I can't say it didn't feel liberating to know you actually don't need the luxuries you have in your regular life, that they are just a nice touch, a cherry on top of all other stuff you need to be happy.
However, spending the last two nights of my holiday in a very nice hotel in Panama City, I also rediscovered how pleasant it is not to worry about water pressure and temperature when you shower, to sleep in clean sheets on a big bed, not to hear strangers snoring...
I think what makes us appreciate things is the variety. You have to be deprived from some things for a while to remember what they can bring you. You need to be away to realize you love home, you need to live a life a dirty and uncomfortable life for a while to appreciate the convenience of your nice apartment, need pain to appreciate lack of it, hard work to feel that the rest you have is not time wasted but somwthing you truely deserve. At least that is how I see it.
And I still remember how it feels when you travel with your salary (or even worse, your parents' salary) from a poor country, how every bowl of ice cream is a calculation, how when you drink tea on the slopes and know that you could eat lunch for this back home. And it is already being in a situation when you can afford holiday, even skiing in France. Unlike many people who cannot really afford to take holiday. It is an unpleasant feeling to know that if you were born in some other place in the world and put precisely the same amount of work in whatever you are doing, you would be in a totally different place.
I don't think that simply having money would make anyone happier. But it differs a lot what people consider as "having a lot of money". Living in Switzerland, having a regular swiss salary, I can afford not to think about money on daily basis, I have to make less choices. It does not make me any happier, but it sure makes many things easier and it frees some of your intelectual capacity.
I thinks this is all worth considering next time we dismissively say (especially to someone who has less) that money does not bring happiness.