Do you think this is true?

I am not happy at all with my present situation. Was probably happiest in my 30's. I wish every night now that I just do not wake up again, end of!

Never had that so can't miss it. Perhaps the happier one's former life has been, the more you miss it?

I am definitely not happier now my happiest times, although hard work and worryingly difficult at times, was when my kids were little ones and would cuddle up on my knee for a bedtime story nothing can come close to that

Exactly wot

Personally i am loving life at the moment. I retired last year and not to have the daily slog of the workplace is heaven!!! I feel fitter, have lost nearly a stone with out trying, enjoy a nice social life through my bowls club, am able to see my darling sister at least once a week and we go swimming or out on a day trip, we are also going on holiday together next year as my husband doesn't do holidays. I have something to look forward too every week, bowling, meeting friends or family, or looking after my grandchildren. Of course i have moments of worry about finances like everyone else but i have trained myself to think, maybe in a few years i might not be so fit and well or have the opportunity to go anywhere so make the most of life now!!! My husband and i live quite frugally really, we dont drink or smoke we dont have large shopping bills and choose what we eat with care. We dont claim any benefits and are living on pension and savings, so yes we are happy and content with our lives in our 60's.

I made up a new saying yesterday, to remind myself..."appreciate what you've got while you've got it!" Instead of me looking back and wishing I'd realised how good things were then. If that makes sense.

Daphne I think what you have said is very true. Each age has its worries and it's compensations.

Think I would say now I am content, out of the rat race, able to keep reasonably healthy, family all moving on well with their lives. Happy with husband, animals, friends and voluntary work . Probably more ups and downs in my twenties but a good future to look forward to.

I was definitely not happy in my twenties. I didn't feel as if I had found my true potential until I hit my mid thirties. Approaching seventy at a rate of knots, what I have now is a different kind of happiness. It is all relative.

I think probably as you get older, and eventually retire, life gets easier, (if you are fairly healthy and not poor) which makes for a different kind of happiness to the ones we had when we were younger.
There is the sadness too, of losing life-long friends.

I'm definitely happier now than I was in my twenties. My 40s were good, 50s OK but 60s so far are great. Tempting providence just saying that I suppose. However, its important to recognise a good time while you're in it so I do! So far so good.

To say older people are happier than people in their 20s is a rather sweeping statement. Some may be happier but some will have suffered loss of loved ones and friends, whilst those in their 20s will have their whole lives in front of them and, as you say, the adventure.

I try not to think about whether I am happier now than when I was younger. I have a different view on life now and prefer to make the best of every day and, I think, the adventure continues!

I don't believe it can be generalised or categorised by age. Circumstances vary so much. My mum used to quote a German saying which translates as "little children, little worries, big children, big worries" so what seems insurmountable in your teens (acne, exams, friends, body image) may be replaced in your 20's and 30's (getting a mortgage,and house, promotion at work, babies) in your 40's (children's schools, house prices, maybe promotion or lack of it) and in your 60's and over (pension, health issues, distant grown up children, housing -again- loneliness) .
What makes you HAPPY will change too. I suppose it all depends on the balance, but by our later years we have perhaps learned to take what happiness we can, while we can!

It depends on how fit you are and how financially well off you are. I would say I was at my happiest in my teens definetly not now in old age!