Youth is wasted on the young

Is it a coincidence I read two articles this week about age and happiness, one in The Wall Street Journal and a second in the Martha's Vineyard Times?

In What is Your Perfect Age?, the WSJ's Clare Ansberry reports that many variables notwithstanding, the 50s are the best.

"If people could live forever in good health at a particular age, it would be 50, according to a 2013 Harris Poll. Gender and geography play a role. In the poll, men said the perfect age is 47, the women 53. In the Midwest, the perfect age is 50. In the East, it's 53 and the West it's 47."

In Finance 101: We get Happier as we age, John Kageleiry at the MV Times agrees that our 50s are when people get happier, and we get even happier as we age:

"It seems that at that time of our lives, we start to shed a lot of our illusions and disappointments and start appreciating what we have and where we want to make a difference -- literally forgetting about the Joneses or regrets. Instead we turn our eye to those most important to us, like family, friends, and others in our tribes."

The Brookings Institution has reported frequently on the relationship between age and happiness. According to Carol Graham in Happiness, stress, and age: How the U-curve varies across people and places:

"Among these relationships, the one between age and happiness -- often referred to at "the U-curve" -- is particularly striking due to its consistency across individuals, countries, and cultures. Happiness declines with age for about two decades from early adulthood up until roughly the middle-age years, and then turns upwards and increases with age."

Then again, Groucho Marx said, "Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough."