Where on the U shaped happiness graph of life are you?

Yet more research to make British parents in their 50s unhappy. Apparently their inheritances are rapidly diminishing as their parents run down their assets to allow the grandchildren to get onto the housing ladder or to pay for their own social care needs.

A report by the Social Market Foundation labelled this as the “skipped middle”, those most likely to lose out financially as parents live longer and increasingly move away from bequests on death to in-life 'gifts' that will not end up in their bank accounts.

These 'new' findings are anything but new. There is a shed load of research that shows there is 'U' shaped happiness curve of life.

All starts well as a child with not a care in the world, but then adolescence cuts in and things start to get difficult. This is soon followed by the long downhill slide battling with relationships, getting employed and reaches the pits of hell as you have to handle both your own children and you parents - who seem to be increasingly acting as kids.

Things then start to improve until you hit the wall of age related illnesses and the inevitable decline into the care home. That is about the 'U' shape of things. Please excuse the gross simplification!

So all you 65-75 year olds. You are at the zenith of the happiness curve. Make the best of it. Dick Stroud