Older is happier? Really?

Happiness is about engagement and meaning and progressing toward your goals, says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. She is author of a best-seller, The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want, a book of strategies backed by scientific research.

Lyubomirsky also addresses the issue of whether money will make us happy. She says research suggests that it's not about having money—it's about how we spend it. If we spend it helping others, interacting in relationships or in learning new things, that can make us happy.

Interestingly, the professor and author also says that people tend to get happier as they age, perhaps because older people are emotionally wiser and know what makes them happy. Many mature people know it's not about things but about relationships.

If you want to increase your level of happiness, she reminds us that it's highly dependent upon attitude. So let's take a check of our attitudes and see whether some adjustment is needed.