Job: Grad Student
Significant Relationship: Engaged
Income: 5000 (this was 1977, in Louisiana, so not as bad as it sounds.)
Social Life: Mostly consisted of writing letters, since my fiance was in Philadelphia. We did spend Christmas together
Health: Great
At 26
Job: Lawyer
Income: 57K
SO: none
Social Life: moved to L.A. without knowing a single person
Health: Amazing
I’ve changed 2, 3 & 4 for the better. I can’t wait for the day I quit lawyering.
That’s either a typo or the month and the day.
When I was 26 years old, it was late 1995 through most of 1996…
Job: Admin Assistant (then Office Manager) for a small dating service
Significant Relationship: Began a relationship which ended 9 mos. later
Income: 26-30K
Social Life: Active and varied (dabbled in personals ads before meeting the boyfriend)
Health: Excellent; the best shape of my life (vegetarian diet and exercised regularly)
Other: I rented a house with two roommates and drove a junky car. I had no debts but no real money or prospects either. I had a job, but no career. However, I was starting to save up for a solo trip to Europe ('97), hung out and worked part-time at one of the country’s first Internet Cafes, took art classes for fun, was cute as a goddam button, and was having a wonderful time. It’s all been kinda downhill from there. 
Right before I turned 26, I graduated from Purdue with a degree in Aero Engineering, and I was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy. I was assigned to the Pentagon. I bought my first house and second car (the first having been sold 2 years earlier.) According to the social security administration, I made $13735 that year (1980), although I also took home housing and subsistance allowances that wasn’t taxed.
Since I grew up in Baltimore and I was living just south of the city, I reconnected with some of my old friends, but I had no relationship. I was in pretty good health, and I wouldn’t go back to that time for anything in the world.
I turned 26 in 1993.
Job: Grad student (English literature) and half-time teaching assistant (composition)
Significant Relationship: Unhappily single
Income: About 12,000
Social Life: Pretty good – friends, bars, coffeeshops, talking philosophy late at night
Health: Fine
Other: I wasn’t happy, and thought I would last only another year in grad school and leave before finishing the Ph.D. The next year I got a fellowship and spent a year in Paris; that was awesome and kept me in my studies for a few more years, after which I…left before finishing the Ph.D. These days I’m happily married and securely employed, so 26 was no big deal.
I really did have a great time and now that I know that I grew up, stopped partying, settled down with one guy and had one career that made lots of money and another that paid crap but that I loved, I don’t regret a bit of it. There were so few women programmers back then that I could always work for a while, quit for a few months and find another job right away when I wanted to work again so it wasn’t that hard to keep my irresponsible lifestyle afloat.
I read it as December 2006…
I’ll get back to you in March… 
I’ll be 26 in a little over two years. People my age are saying that their best years are behind them (in regards to carefree, no-strings-attached fun). Is this true? Or is 26 a great age to be? Do most of you think college was the prime time for adventure and excitement, or was that just the beginning?
2005 for me.
Job: Just out of school, fooled around for a few months, then got a Trainee-job at a really sucky company and moved countries at the end of the year.
Significant Relationship: Nothing significant before the Trainee-job, nothing at all while it lasted.
Income: 45000 USD
Social Life: Went from knowing everyone and having plenty of free time, to knowing nobody and having no free time and then back to the first again.
Health: Pretty good
1995 for me:
Job: Painter for a shitty local renovation company
Significant Relationship: On the wrong end of an increasingly abusive relationship with an undiagnosed bi-polar
Income: $15,000
Social Life: Bordering on non-existent, as the aforementioned abusive SO did not generally permit me to see my friends
Health: Good to very good. Still pretty active and thin.
This was the worst of what I now think of as my “Dark Period.” I was depressed, in a shitty relationship and unable to see a way out, in a shitty job (also unable to see a way out), the couple grand I had saved before graduating from university had turned into a couple grand worth of debt, I was starting to come to grips with the reality that I would never get a job in my chosen vocation (because I had come to it at exactly the wrong time in exactly the wrong place). All in all, I was miserable, bitter, and generally a real lousy person to be around.
But, on the upside, I eventually did get my shit together, stopped being such a little bitch, and moved on with my life. Things are much better now. 
Job: Computer Operator
Significant Relationship: just meeting the man I’d marry
Income: 20K
Social Life: see above
Health: Great
Job: Middle of grad school, so TA and RA assignments
Income: stipend
Social Life: lots of parties; just starting relationship with who would turn out to be psycho bi-polar bitch from hell (but worthy of Penthouse Forum)
Health: Prime of life.
Job: Admin Assistant
Significant Relationship: Nothing
Income: 35000
Social Life: In flux
Health: the skinniest I’ve ever been yet mentally in shambles.
Hey! I actually am 26! (Double checks year…) Yes, definitely 26. I guess I’m not at the age where I’m not super-concerned with how old I am any more.
Job: Medical Imaging Software Developer
Significant Relationship: Married 5 years with kids 4, 2, and 1.
Income: $85K + very decent bonuses
Health: Good, for the most part. Left knee and right ankle have been giving me problems due to a number of bad falls on ice and steep stairs. I’ve developed food sensitivities to egg, soy, and dairy, which is a big pain.
Life is pretty crazy a lot of the time, but 3 kids under 5 years old will do that. I’d say I’m pretty happy, but also tired a lot. My wife and I didn’t get a lot of time together before we had kids (our first was born a month ofter our 1st anniversary), but we didn’t have a lot of money then anyway. With any luck we’ll be in our early 40s with a paid-off house when all the kids go to college, and will have time to travel before we’re too old.
Well, a lot of this is up to you. Certainly, I had to do a lot of growing up that year, as my first child was born. But in this day and age, things like that are not compulsory.
Still, you’ll probably find that various responsibilities accumulate (house payments, car payments, getting up for work each day, doing your taxes and so on). On balance, I probably prefer the way my life is now to the way it was then. I’m only 36 now, mind you, so no need to get off my lawn quite yet.
I was 26 in 1966.
Job: VW Mechanic
Significant Relationship: None
Income: I honestly don’t remember but I lived pretty well.
Social Life: A few protest marches and lots of dope and red wine parties.
Health: Other than migraines, pretty good.
Let’s see, in '92, I was
Job: Asst. City Clerk, then later a few weeks maternity leave
Significant Relationship: Married 2 years with one baby, born in Feb that year
Income: $65k??? Comfortable but not carefree
Social life: Tons of people our own age in similar circumstances; our social life revolved around kids and leaving my newborn was tough.
Health: Great. I took really good care of myself when I was pregnant. I ate right and walked tons.
That’s with profit sharing. The late 80s were banner years and I’d make 70-80 percent of my salary in profit sharing. The only, and I do mean only reason I worked in that hell hole was because it paid so well and I had a mortgage and car payment.