If you haven’t already, you may very well be asking these questions very soon. It’s normal, almost expected these days.

Can’t have the ‘merican dream without two parts adulthood (home mortgage, family and career) and one part crisis

Let’s see if you can relate to conversations I’ve had with others.

MM: How’s work?

Person 1: Prefer not to go, that’s for sure.

Person 2: Makes a living.

Person 3: Fuck work (this was my personal favorite)

MM: How’s life?

Person 1: Pretty routine. Work, come home to eat and clean, Netflix, head to bed then repeat.

Person 2: Bought a new car a bit ago. It’s already got some scratches so I guess I need to get it fixed.

Person 3: Fuck work (kidding)

I could go one, but there’s no need. Most of the above are humans that are 10 years from the bottom of their midlife crisis “u” curve.

“U” curve you ask?

According to new research from David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald of the a midlife crisis hits especially hard at age after age 47. David is an economics professor at Dartmouth College and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick. Both way more intelligent than I.

More graphs here.

Why the Midlife Crisis in Your 40’s?

The researchers focus on offering evidence that life satisfaction over time is U-shaped. They didn’t correlate to the why.

Life in the simplest terms comes down to three stages. Early development, money making years and retirement. Retirement being one of our favorite things to discuss.

Early development

Everything is new and exciting! We are in learning mode and seeing the world as a magical and wondrous place.

It’s no doubt that from birth to our early 20’s life fly’s by and we love (almost) every minute of it.

We pay for almost nothing. We don’t have to learn about mortgages, taxes and we assume money grows on trees.

And then… we graduate.

Money Making Years

It doesn’t hit us right away. We are new to the working world, learning about business. Meeting new people who have a passion for their work – at least it appears they have the passion at face value.

We are still defining who we want to be and setting goals for our future selves. Envisioning our dream home, dream partner and watching our social media accounts. Looking at everyone else enforces us to keep up with the Joneses.

Then, vision becomes reality.

Having that reality in life throws us curve balls. Everyday we ask, “sure, algebra was interesting, but how the hell do I expense deductions in Turbo tax?”

The Deepest of Ruts

And so it begins. Regret and uncertainty.

Regrets: This isn’t how I envisioned our home. Did I choose the right career for me? It’s too late to change it now, I make too much and can’t go backwards. Why did I buy chocolate ice cream? I love vanilla.

Uncertainty: I should have prioritized my savings earlier, am I gonna be OK later? I have how much longer of this repetition before I can retire? Can I go much longer with this tooth pain before I have to spend money on a dentist visit? Stupid ice cream.

As Blanchflower writes, “The middle-aged have had particular difficulties in adapting in the years of slow growth since the Great Recession [of 2008 and 2009]. The interaction between a nadir for happiness among the middle aged along with a major downturn has had major social, political and health consequences that have reverberated around the world.”

Did our education system fail us?

The Rebound Years after Midlife Crisis

“Oh shit, everything seems to have a way of working itself out. I didn’t reach all my goals but I hit many I didn’t see coming. I’m content and happy. It was the journey that mattered.”

At least, this is what I envision I will say to myself when the time comes. I still have ~15 years until the up slope of that crazy “u” curve.

How to Plan for the Midlife Crisis

Don’t. It’s inevitable. You and I are screwed!

Nah, we can lesson the blow. It won’t be pretty, but let’s see if we can plan for a higher-low. That’s a win right? It’s like beating the market by making -4% vs SP500 at -5% during a downturn.

Little increments are what matter. Over time they build up. The secret to overcoming your midlife crisis is to plan for it. Small habits can even be the secret to your financial dreams.

I write about this because it’s what I’m living through. My journey to financial freedom so I have the flexibility – nay, the responsibility to myself – to decide my work.

No longer shall we sit at the throes of corporate middle management. High risk, low reward single income is the real killer.

This post is simply a call to action. It lays out the most often traveled road of life satisfaction and preps us to take some control.

As this blog matures, this will no longer be a framework. We will have historic experiences and game plans. We want to keep you on track.

Follow us here, as we lay out our four phases to a financially safe mindset. Going from debt to financially free is easy – but it is not simple.

The earlier we get started the faster we can plan for our midlife crisis and level out the bottom of that “u” curve.

– MM