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By Gillian West, Social media manager

January 8, 2015 | 3 min read

Online insurance company Beagle Street has quizzed some of the UK’s oldest couples to uncover the happiest moments in life.

The resulting short film – ‘Happiest Moment’ – revealed that the birth of a first child tops the list of happy moments with 12.3 per cent of the 1,000 ‘life experts’ choosing that as their number one.

Wedding Day (11.5 per cent) and birth of grandchildren (10 per cent) rounded out the top three.

The campaign from Beagle Street aims to pass on some advice to the younger generation with Matthew Gledhill, managing director of Beagle Street, revealing that the “overwhelming message” from the film is to “worry less and live in the moment with the people you care about most”.

Gledhill added: “We commissioned ‘Happiest Moment’ because we want our customers to be happy as it is scientifically proven that happier people live longer. As much as people look to the future and try to climb career ladders, the film and our research clearly show that happiness is linked much more heavily to relationships, friends and family than societal or monetary status.”

According to those surveyed – including Bournemouth couple Maurice (aged 102) and Helen (101) Kaye who have been married for 80 years, Betty (95) and Doug (100) Hale from Winchester who have been married for 73 years and William (84) and Maureen (80) Norman from Wellingborough, Northants who have been married for 60 years – men are happiest at 40, whilst women hit their positive peak at 38.

The top piece of advice for the younger generation was ‘never take the people you love for granted’ with choosing the wrong career cited as the biggest regret.

The top ten happiest moments, top ten pieces of advice and five biggest regrets unveiled by Beagle Street are shown below.

The top ten happiest life moments are:

  1. Birth of a first child (12.3 per cent of vote)
  2. Wedding day (11.5 per cent)
  3. Birth of grandchildren (10 per cent)
  4. Birth of another child (8.5 per cent)
  5. Day of retirement (7.4 per cent)
  6. Moving into a new home (6.7 per cent)
  7. Seeing your child’s first steps (5.5 per cent)
  8. Hearing your child’s first words (5.4 per cent)
  9. Meeting the man or woman of your dreams (4.5 per cent)
  10. First kiss with the man or woman of your dreams (4.4 per cent)

Top ten pieces of advice to live a happier life:

  1. Never take the people you love for granted
  2. Believe in yourself
  3. Remember what is important to you
  4. Nothing worth having comes easy
  5. Put your heart and soul into everything you do
  6. Don’t hold grudges
  7. Don’t be jealous of success
  8. Stop worrying and live in the moment
  9. Spend more time with your family
  10. Choose your friends wisely

Top five biggest regrets:

  1. Choosing the wrong career (11 per cent)
  2. Not furthering education (10 per cent)
  3. Not travelling enough (7 per cent)
  4. Getting divorced (6 per cent of vote)
  5. Getting married too soon (5 per cent)
Beagle Street

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