For many it’s just beginning with elderly parents aging, and figuring out how to cope with them without it bankrupting everybody.
47 was 14 years ago for me, and it marked one of my best years ever. I had walked out of my last factory at 42, started my own biz, was barely making it until about 3 years later, when it really took off. At 47 entered into one of my best relationships, and she had the greatest kids too, that made it even better. Had other things that got in our way, but really didn’t have anything to do with her or me.
At 61, taking care of an elderly parent at 89 with full-blown dementia with sundowners that has kept me and my two brothers in a holding pattern for the last eight years and counting. It’s often extremely challenging, cost me relationships, but it’s still going to take a lot more than that to get me down.
But 47 being a bad year, perish the thought, for me, one of the best and happiest years that I can look back with the fondest of memories, and the people that came into my life that year.
Lessee - at 45 I got my first progressive tri-focal glasses, and my gallbladder was yanked out. At 50, we bought the house where we’re now living. During those years, we made long-distance moves twice and our daughter started college. They were crazy, somewhat frantic years, but I don’t recall any particular unhappiness.
Then again, I turned 47 in 2001. Not so much unhappy as “OMG What’s happening in the world???”
I don’t remember 47 all that distinctly. Both of my parents died in my early 40s, so I think those were my most unhappy and stressful years, and I still feel like I am climbing back out of that dark time 10 years later.
I never took my job as a career so never had high expectations there, altho recently I have felt the heavy hand of doubt regarding not stretching more at work - people younger than me and more driven are at higher levels, and my friends of the same age are all muckety-mucks at their companies, while I am still a corporate drone.
Right now I have a kid in college and another starting next year, so this should be interesting from a finance perspective, but I would not say the prospect of having two kids in college at one time is stressing me out all that much. I think I was more stressed when they were both under 10.
I don’t have any serious health issues and I am still pretty active. Slower than when I was in my 20s, but still moving. I recently revitalized my travel bug, and now that I have resources (that I did not in my 20s), I feel like I need to scratch that itch now while I still have health and a steady income. So, I am optimistic about the future.
I don’t think the articles the OP cites are suggsting that people have one terrible year at age 47, and all the other years are swell. Rather, I think the claim is that the long, slow arc of happiness/unhappiness across one’s life tends to gradually dip toward a broad minimum centered somewhere around 47 before gently climbing back to to a state of relative serenity in later years.
Well, I was very happy during that decade of my life. I had a good job, my daughter was a delight, and I was selling short stories pretty regularly.
I read this as a state of relative senility… good thing my new glasses are ready for pickup today! :D:D:D
Here is their chart that shows happiness levels still going up in their fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties and gives a little more insight with this longer article. It did show that Ukrainians are at their most miserable at 62. For the Swiss at 35.
I would think loneliness is a major factor for seniors, especially for many whose health has seriously deteriorated, on fixed incomes, many loved ones have gone, they are also in a higher group of suicides. I’m not sure how their charts continue on average show an upward spike of happiness after supposedly averaging out at 47 for the lowest. One-third of Americans have Alzheimer’s in their mid-eighties, IIRC. And if their spouse is still alive, being a caretaker full-time is no picnic when chances are they may be needing some help themselves.
I did see on the chart that said, self-reported so I guess that many get skipped, and I think would be a major flaw in their methodology. But I only did a cursory drive-by, am no statistician, maybe others understand it better.