Same. I'm 32 and life just started clicking together over the last year or so.

My 30s was by far my favorite decade. I was genuinely happy for just about all of it, even with a stressful job and full time marital and parental responsibilities. I'll be 50 this year, and I'm by no means miserable, but I'm hoping to have another decade where I'm as happy and fulfilled as I was in my 30s.

In this economy, be lucky to start getting ahead at 40

It's my understanding that it's pretty common not to hit your stride until mid-thirties.

I'm not stressing about catching up. I'm stressing about working for the rest of my life.

Let's say you'll live to be 78, average life expectancy.

At 26, you have 2/3 of your life left. Think of all the years crawling, grade school, college, your first couple jobs, all the experiences you've ever had, every friendship and obsession and relationship, all the fullness of life from 0-26. You get all that time again, twice. Except this time you're not starting from diapers. You have knowledge, resources, skills, connections.

It took you 13 years to go from absolutely nothing to some reasonable semblance of self, it took another 13 to go from the prototypical "you" to the adult that you are at 26. If it takes another 13 to really hit your stride, you're still only halfway through at 39. At 39, you have an entire second lifetime, except you're not starting at square one, you have all the benefits of the first half.

It's a marathon, not a sprint. You have plenty of time. Spend a good portion of that time really figuring out your values and interests, those make up the foundation for the rest.

I was pretty miserable up until 30. Then life became exactly what I wanted it to be. Can only say I'm glad I didn't peak in my 20s. Or even worse, high school

I'm not