About Us

Forty-Seven Plus is the website dedicated to those who have hit their late 40s and beyond and who understand exactly what “The U-bend of life: Why, beyond middle age, people get happier as they get older” in The Economist is talking about. Have a look here.

In brief, it comes down to what makes people happy? “Four main factors, it seems: gender, personality, external circumstances and age. Women, by and large, are slightly happier than men. But they are also more susceptible to depression: A fifth to a quarter of women experience depression at some point in their lives, compared with around a tenth of men. Which suggests either that women are more likely to experience more extreme emotions, or that a few women are more miserable than men, while most are more cheerful.

“Two personality traits shine through the complexity of economists’ regression analyses: Neuroticism and extroversion. Neurotic people—those who are prone to guilt, anger and anxiety—tend to be unhappy. This is more than a tautological observation about people’s mood when asked about their feelings by pollsters or economists. Studies following people over many years have shown that neuroticism is a stable personality trait and a good predictor of levels of happiness. Neurotic people are not just prone to negative feelings: They also tend to have low emotional intelligence, which makes them bad at forming or managing relationships, and that in turn makes them unhappy…”

Read the piece. But it will tell you simply this: Make yourself happy. The time of your life starts now. Get reading to find out how and get cracking!

Photo by Haley Phelps on Unsplash