Your Life According To Age
With wealth doesn’t come happiness, with age doesn’t come success, and maturity doesn’t necessarily bring body confidence, or so the researchers behind a new report would have us believe.
The average Briton is at their healthiest at the age of 30, wealthiest at 47, has the best sex at 32 – but is ultimately the happiest when they turn 39, according to a new study carried out to determine the key milestone years of life. The survey also found we are most body confident when we are 31 – but doing the best in our careers at the age of 38.
Other major moments in our lives include being the most content in our relationship at the age of 40 and earning our dream salary two years later at 42. But when asked whether they would like to live forever, should science ever advance to such an extent, only one in four of us said we would.
The research, which was carried out among almost 2,000 adults of both sexes, found that after years of burning the candle at both ends, the penny finally drops at the age of 30 when we start to take care of ourselves and are officially feeling our healthiest.
Wealth however, takes more time to achieve, with the typical Brit expecting to have to wait until they reach 47 before they reach the pinnacle of the earning power. But we can expect to be happy with our lot way before that, as true happiness is set to arrive at the age of 39 when we are likely to own our own home, be settled with our soul mate, and enjoying our chosen career. If only life were that simple!
The study also discovered we are most likely to enjoy ‘playing the field’ at the age of 24 with the average woman saying she make the most of being young, free and single at the age of 23, while for men that crept up to 25. And according to the data, finding a soul mate occurs just months before we are able to enjoy the best sex of our lives as we approach our 33rd birthday.
Psychologist Donna Dawson analysed the survey’s results. She told Belle About Town: “Interestingly, the research reveals that most of the high points in our lives occur in our thirties. This is because we have laid a foundation beforehand: in our twenties, we leave university, start a job, try a few relationships out for size, make plenty of mistakes and learn from them and work out what we really want from life.
“By the age of thirty, we are physically in our prime, still advancing our careers and more sure of what we want. This, in turn, brings self-confidence and general contentment. However it is not surprising that ‘immortality’ is not something universally desired: if we can’t stay at the ideal age of ‘38’, then we still have to deal with the ageing process and the health and financial issues that come with it.
“There is also the inherent contradiction in human nature itself: the experience of the ‘first best’ in anything is so good because it is a milestone that can’t be equalled in intensity or specialness by being ‘repeated’, no matter how long you live.”
The study also found overall that a reassuring 84% of the population are current either very happy or mostly happy, with only 16% of those polled admitting to being unhappy.
- The research was carried out to mark Monday’s Blu-ray and DVD release of The Last Witch Hunter, starring Vin Diesel, whose character Kaulder is cursed with immortality.
