They say that money can't buy happiness. Well, that may or may not be true, but of one thing I am certain: Money buys you options.

When you're looking for stocks to buy, one thing to examine is the so-called “war chest.” See, a company with a lot of cash on hand can expand its business without having to borrow funds or dilute shareholders by issuing new equity. And importantly, they can also reward their shareholders with big dividend hikes or share repurchases. Or, they can simply sit on the cash and save it for a rainy day. And it's every bit as true for companies as it is for regular people.

But in any event, it's just about impossible to have “too much” cash on the books.

Today, we're going to look at four stocks sitting on a mountain of cash. Some have been better stewards of their cash hoards than others, but all have the options at their disposal that comes with being cash-rich.

Apple

Given the size of Apple's (AAPL) cash stash, I feel obligated to mention Apple first.

Apple's cash balance is the stuff of legend. If AAPL's cash and marketable securities were a standalone company, they would be just bigger than Walt Disney (DIS) by market capitalization, and just smaller than Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD). Even allowing for punishing tax rates on Apple's cash held offshore, Apple has enough cash in the bank to sustain its dividend at current levels for years … without earning a single dime in additional profit.

As of this week's earnings announcement, Apple had just under $203 billion in cash and securities. That's about 28% of its gargantuan market cap. And the most amazing thing is that Apple's cash hoard has continued to expand even while a disproportionate share of it gets dedicated to dividends and share repurchases.

Over the past year, Apple has raised its dividend by 11% and shrunk its shares outstanding by about 5%. And I expect plenty more to come.