Answer: get fired from your job

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, don’t get divorced and don’t get fired from your job. MichiganStateUniversity psychologist Richard Lucas says avoiding those two experiences are the two keys to long-term happiness. Getting married makes us markedly happier — but only for two years. After that, married people are no more happy than they had been as singles. However, divorce and losing your job can make some people permanently sad. Compare that to losing a spouse to death, something from which most people recover in about seven years. Lucas maintains that divorced people can be happy again if they remarry, but even finding a new job can’t repair the damage of getting fired.