Leading economist says invest in your happiness pension pot

‘With a bit of planning, you can make sure you avoid unleashing your inner Victor Meldrew and make the most of life in your fifties and beyond,’ the article began. Remembering the character Victor Meldrew I thought that sounded like a very good idea. The article looks at a new book by Arthur C Brooks, an economist at Harvard. ‘Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life’ doesn’t contain the author’s usual advice about putting aside 12.5 per cent of your monthly salary, but describes an audit of the soul. The best book for this particular audit is the Bible, and it is interesting to see how this leading economist’s book parallels its precepts.

“The sooner you start investing in your Happiness 401k [401k is a US pension plan], the better off you will be,’ said the Professor in an online video. ‘You can remarkably change the odds of being happier at 75 than you were at 25, but you have to make the investments.”

Those investments he describes as the four ‘Fs’ - faith, family, friendship, and function. And we need to make sure that we do this before the age of fifty-five, when life changes begin for most people. Most efforts should be directed in cultivating these long-term relationships, not only your marriage or relationship, but family and friends too. Professor Brooks says that “the point is to find people with whom you can grow, whom you can count on, no matter what comes your way.”

Paul Dolan, professor of behavioural science at the LSE and the author of ‘Happiness by Design’ and ‘Happy Ever,’ says that we’re probably going to end up getting happier even if we do nothing because data shows that from middle age happiness increases. But there are small things that if we did every day would make us happier. These include listening to music, getting outdoors, helping others, spending time with people you like and laughing. “If you did 15 minutes more of any or one of those things every day, you’d be happier.”

The good news is that one of the reasons we are happier as we get older is that we start to do these things naturally – eschewing the pursuit of success and money. But we shouldn’t rely on a natural segue into contentment, he says; we still need to “make happiness a habit by building in these activities day to day”. He puts weight training five times in his diary, yet acknowledges that even healthy, happy habits like this are weak enough to be broken by a holiday or illness.

Dina Glouberman, author of the classic midlife resurrection guide ‘The Joy of Burnout’, and whose new book ‘Image Work, a guide to transformational change’, is published this month, says we need to imagine how we would like or lives to be in five or ten years’ time, and then let our future self give our present one some advice as to what it is that we want.

It all sounds like rather hard work. In our relationship with Jesus we can allow the Holy Spirit to deal with our inner Victor Meldrew. Surely, it’s good advice to build our relationships with friends and family, but not solely to benefit our own well-being. And we know that, like the apostle Paul, we can learn the secret of being content in whatever our circumstances. Thank God for Jesus.