I’ve recently posted a couple of articles on social media about age and happiness. Most of the research in this area supports the ‘happiness curve’, which generally looks quite like this:

You see, we typically reach a ‘low’ point for happiness in our forties and then things start to look up until at least 80 or so. Which is good news for those of us on the right side of 45…

Of course, individual circumstances play a part, as does our personal mood baseline (some people are perpetually jolly and others less so). But on the whole it is NOT all downhill from 50, far from it. I saw an article the other day which said older workers are happier than younger ones, and I’ve read research showing that our levels of stress, anger and anxiety also tend to fall as we age.

I had an interesting exchange with one reader, about the link between financial circumstances and happiness. She was convinced that it was not possible to be happy if you’re broke, and as plenty of older people are in an uncertain financial situation, it followed (to her) that the happiness curve couldn’t be right. I was really pleased to have the opportunity to think about this and do some research on it, because I get her point that money is important - but I also knew the happiness curve has been validated numerous times by serious research.

Clearly if you are in immediate financial stress it is likely to be causing you anxiety and interfering with your happiness. But when I looked into it, I found that in general, the link between money and happiness (which is not as strong as you might think, even in younger years) gets weaker as we age. The idea is that we value other things more than money, we aren’t ‘needing’ as much to spend and we have accepted our financial lot in life. We also have a better perspective on things and can find ways to smile even if one area of our life isn’t the best.

So, how happy are you? 

If you’d like to be be happier in 2017 than you were last year, why not contact me  to arrange a chat (either solo or with a partner or friend) about my programs, or click here to book a coffee chat (Sydney) or Skype/phone call (elsewhere) - and make the next stage of your life the best yet!

I have a special offer at the moment for both my Escape Hatch (work reinvention) and Second Act (new retirement) individual programs with a 20% discount and a bonus follow-up session. If you’re interested, do get in touch because only the first 5 people can activate the offer.