I voted
3-5 years into ER, neither happier nor less happy than expected which is not strictly true, because I had no expectations whatsoever connected with how happy I would be in ER. I don't think of happiness that way. I can tell you whether I am currently feeling happy or not, but I never, ever think of the future and speculate as to how happy I expect to be. I hope this doesn't sound as if I'm being awkward!
However, I can report that I am a little less happy than I'd
like to be at this point but that is mainly because my life is in a bit of a holding pattern right now. I am not doing anything new or particularly different. That will hopefully change at some point in the next few years. In the meantime, I'm gently stuck in a fairly pleasant rut. However, had I continued to work, I'd probably be at the same point. My job, which had used to be thrilling had, at the time of my layoff, graduated to being merely enjoyable. If I were still working today, I would probably be feeling in a slight rut with it, which is exactly how I'm feeling with my ER life right now, in general.
I didn't save for FI with the intention of being happy - I did it so that I could be financially secure without needing to work. Happiness, for me, is something that has no connection to whether I am working or not.
I'd like to be able to report to y'all how deliriously happy I am. Sometimes when I log onto Facebook, it seems as if all my Facebook "friends" are eating fantastic food in wonderful restaurants, visiting many different interesting countries, and hanging out with fascinating, and beautiful people. Then when I think a bit more about it, I realize that I have other Facebook friends who don't post all that often. Perhaps they're the ones who are averagely happy, but don't feel like posting status updates to the effect of, "Today is a moderately acceptable day. I do quite like it, and am feeling content with myself" because, well, how dull would that be?
I have a sneaky feeling that if there are any ER's here who are having a less than excellent time, they may well not want to admit it to the rest of us.
Or maybe not!