Agree wendy. I do think it depends on circumstances. I found my late 20s and 30s hard work with 4 small children and very little sleep but loved the total involvement in their upbringing. My 40s were horrendous, 4 teenage children, all of whom were difficult to a greater or lesser extent, and 4 dying parents to look after. My 50s were quite good with a busy and fulfilling work life.....until I got cancer, and DD3 was left pregnant with a toddler by a self centred, uncaring husband, whose mother thought it was ok for him to come back to live with her.

The 60s has been the best, once I had recovered from cancer treatments: steady trickle of grandchildren, an unexpected financial bonus and feeling more in tune with myself. Hope it continues but some of the experiences of older GNetters dealing with ill health of themselves and partners frighten me!

What defines happiness? At 62 I think I've always been happy but not necessarily content. Each decade has brought its own stresses and struggles and our 60's don't seem to be any different. If I asked my husband I know he would say he has never been happy or content! He's definitely not happy at 62 and I can't see it getting any better the older he gets which is pretty sad but ask him what would make him happy he wouldn't have an answer!

I am very wary about all this happiness waffle. I suspect it may be a semantic difference in how I define what happiness is. To me happiness is not a constant emotion, it is one that waxes and wanes over relatively short periods of time. The long time feeling that writers like this describe as happiness, I would describe as content.

Yesterday DH and I went out for a celebratory lunch with DD and an old friend. During the meal our DDiL rang up to tell us a job interview had been successful and she had been offered a job she really wanted. My spirits soared with happiness; the meal, for a host of reasons, will remain in my memory. Now I am back in a state of quiet content.

Swings and roundabouts for me. I am in my mid 60s. I can't say this is the happiest time of my life. On the plus side we have no mortgage, are retired and have no money worries to speak of and obviously grandchildren are a plus. However my DH has been seriously ill (all fine now hopefully). I have had some problems with my physical appearance that I didn't have when I was younger. Then there is the tendency to become invisible to younger people. I think when my DD was small, I was at my happiest.

Monica, I think contentment is a lovely state of mind, with happiness an unexpected bonus, usually coming out of the blue with some special event such as you experienced. Although it's four years since I retired, I do still miss the purpose and comradeship of my working life, but on the whole I am content. Still waiting for the wisdom that ageing supposedly brings, and would certainly welcome a little more financially, but while we both have our health and share a laugh, I really should count my blessings.

Overall I have always been content with my life as I was living it at the time. Of course there have been bad times, some quite prolonged, but during those times, the underlying content with life remained.

For me the one underlying cause of content specific to retirement is having a secure income. When I was working, I always knew that our income depended onboth of us keeping our current job or finding another. No work, no income - and we both were made redundant at different times. Now every month my state pension and occupational pension go into my bank, of course there is always a remote possibility that both could change disadvantageously in the future but currently they are as a safe a form of income as any and neither is dependent on me holding down a job.

My first, not very good, marriage finished 24 years ago and by accident, almost immediately met the man who is now my second husband.
He has been very kind to me and we are still happy together. I am almost 70 now and remarked to one of my daughters the other day that 'I am content'.
Like others, I had not realised how much I would love my grand children. They give us so much pleasure and we are happy to help look after them (and even happier to give them back).

I'm in my late 50s and enjoying every minute. Have a job I enjoy, two daughters I have seen blossom into women and a lovely grandson who keeps my hubby and I on our toes ☺. Am a bit nervous about the 60's and beyond as my hubby is not in the best of health so don't want to look too far forward and just enjoy the here and now. I don't post very often but do love reading the posts.

No. Too many losses. Bad health as well.

My 60s have been far from my happiest. My husband died when I was 62 and although the arrival of 2 grandchildren have brought me a lot of joy there is always an underlying sadness in my days. My 30s and 40s were the happiest with our children growing and with a job I loved.

I'm in my early 60s and would say my happiest years were my 30s to early 40s: I loved bringing up my 3 (then) young children,, finally learned to drive at 37 and in my early 40s learned new jobskills that enabled me to take on a very flexible job. After that problems with ageing and sick parents, combined with young adult children's problems have made life not so easy. I love being a grandparent though and look forward to retiring soon so that I can spend more time enjoying it.
Not sure how future generations will feel though, with retirement age set to be 68+

I agree with those who have said that health is crucial to happiness. I was still running my very successful business when suddenly diagnosed with cancer at 65. That changed everything and now, not quite 3yrs on, I have multiple health issues which, while not major, are restricting for me, for my husband, and mean I can't help with our lovely grandchildren as much as I would like to. So I would say my late 40's to 65 was my happiest and most content.

When I was in my early sixties I was feeling, content. I had nursed my mother through dementia, seen her safely into a Home and been there at her passing which was what she wanted me to do.

I felt I had done my best for her and had no real guilt. My sons were grown up, we had two grandchildren and the time had come to enjoy life. We had a wonderful time travelling in UK, and abroad, looking after the grandchildren and enjoying reasonable health.

When I was 65 my husband passed away from cancer, very suddenly. My life began to unravel, my sons fell out, my dil's mother died, also from cancer, my best friend ever, died from heart failure. I had to move house and while all this was happening my eldest son was diagnosed with cancer.

I helped to care for him and the grandchildren, also my dil who was still reeling from the death of her mum. All this time I was selling a house and packing up my belongings. Thankfully my son recovered and is in remission.

Am I happy - well yes and no - fairly content I suppose but much more mature and perhaps quite cynical. I used to live in a bit of a dream world where bad things happened mostly to other people. I am still optimistic but of course, lonely. I keep busy and try not to brood.

My happiest time was when the kids were little, even though we were very hard up I loved being a stay at home Mum and took them out on walks, picnics ,bus rides etc
Now in my early 60's a life changing disease in my late forties has made my retirement years very different from what I had expected, but I am blessed with wonderful caring kids/grandkids who make my life worth while.

Like so many, my happiest years were my 30s/40s. Life had a purpose and we were financially stable,not a situation in our younger days.
Late 50's and the wheels started to fall off until now when it seems no wheels are left

No...I think I can honestly say the last six years ( I am 66) have been the unhappiest of my whole life. I am married to someone I shouldn't have stayed with , so am unhappy in that department, have ill health that will just get worse......have lost both parents and only sister. Yes I have grandchildren but it's not as nice as having my own when I could look forward to years of enjoying them ........

Like others I loved being a full time mum for many years and helping DH and DCs with their lives. Doing things in the community and schools was also fulfilling.

Mostly I enjoyed going back to work too.

Now I enjoy being retired and never miss work one bit. I don't even miss my colleagues although I do keep in touch with some.

I like that there is no concern about the next annual assessment, the next promotion, the next move or the next house. DH and I have enough room to get away from each other when we need to and we seem to have settled into who does what in house and garden although this can be flexible. We have been together for 50 years so should have things sorted by now!

The one negative about being older is that we can no longer sort out our children's problems like we could when they were small. We can still listen and give advice for them to take or reject but sometimes when things are difficult for one of them it is hard to stand by and feel impotent.

Only happy years if you are really financially secure.

Rozina, I agree but would add friends, health, transport links

I was fortunate to be able to retire at age 55. But all I have done for the last ten years is take care of parents and grandchildren. Three out of the four parents have past away in the last few years. I have enjoyed caring for the grandchildren but found it hard to do while stressed from the parents. We are starting to travel and I am blessed to have good health, but I'm not as energetic as I used to be and two grandchildren were cut out of our lives by their parents for a reason we will never know. So my happiest most carefree time in my life was when I was a child and someone was taking care of me. My teen years and twenties followed next even though the kids were small.

Like several GNetters, I think "Happiness" is a fleeting emotion, coming and going; contentment is more constant. Of course, there have been ups and downs, but on the whole my life has been content.
I have had the good fortune of having a DH who could "keep" me. i loved being a mother of 3 children under 4; though the competition with the insufferable mothers whose children were [and still are] perfect was difficult. Living 1000 miles away from [critical] family helped was hard; living in a foreign country with a different language was also difficult.

i have found contentment in old age, I'm in my late 60s, giving thanks for every lovely day, regardless of creaking body and marble loss. I love having the 3GCs, finding my DCs happy/content in their lives, although one has just split up with his love of 5 years. We are healthy, despite cancer and arthritis.

Yes, 60s onwards are very happy due to being sure of the future, regular dependable income, no debts. I think it is those things that cause anxiety in the young and middle-aged.

my husband was made redundant just before 60 and I had retired on the grounds of ill health. We did our sums, decided to live on baked beans and sardines for a few years! And took he took early retirement. We packed our bags like two teenagers and set off for 4 months backpacking around SE Asia for 4 months. Loved it. And we have been doing it ever since ( 9 years now). I feel so contented and stress free, my health is not without its problems but the warm weather and way of life helps no end. We are not rolling in money but once the fare is paid the cost of living out there is far, far, cheaper and we can live quite well. Would I want to be younger worrying about children, work etc no way. Next year I a m 70 but certainly don't feel it.

when you are travelling go to the countries where they have a sleep or rest in the afternoon, great for the energy levels!

Reluctantly retired from a job I loved as DH had already retired, that was nearly 20 years ago.Now,at nearly 80, the past years have been wonderful. We are both reasonably fit and have enough money to give us a comfortable life. Good children and grown-up GC whose company we enjoy. We consider ourselves very fortunate and thank God for it

Looking back, I realise that on the whole I have enjoyed each decade though I wish I could have worked part time sooner so that I could have had more time with the children when young.

DH still isn't ready to give up work entirely so we run a small B&B as we have spare capacity in our home. I wasn't keen at first, but as it has turned out, things work well for us and it keeps DH gainfully occupied....

Moving into our 70s, I feel very fortunate that DH and I have our health, no money worries, no mortgage, an active social life. The three GCs are the icing on the cake for both of us.

I feel these years are precious, as sooner or later we know it's likely that one of us will fall ill, and then who knows.