If You're 46 And Unhappy, There May Be Good News...

March 31, 2019

JP Morgan’s 2019 Guide to Retirement includes a chart (see below) depicting levels of happiness and stress by age. For married Americans, happiness is lowest at age 46 and then continues to rise on an upward sloping curve all through the ‘golden’ years. (I wonder if it has anything to do with the kids’ finally going off to college.)

In contrast, stress levels are highest at age 32, which is probably the age that parents kick their children out of their basement to move into their own apartment. In general, stress levels drop thereafter.

The two determinants that appear to cause less stress and more happiness: an increase in time spent each day on the category “Socializing, leisure, and exercise,” and a decrease in time spent each day “Working.”

Roy, Katherine, et al.  “J.P. Morgan Guide to Retirement, 2019 Ed.”

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