Younger I think is easier, because we are stupid and adventurous when we are younger. As we age, we get a little more cautious of strange and new adventure.

This being said... adventure strikes at any age!!! As long as you are willing to embrace it... you can go anywhere and do anything your heart fancies at any age.

Older people usually have more money than young people so in some ways I think it would be easier to start over when older, since it would be easier to do things like move or go back to school financially.

It depends on the situation the most - if kids are involved, how old are they? Has one spouse been a house-spouse, and for how many years? Etc.

It was technically easier for me, though I was in my early 30's - we didn't have children or anything big to split, I was used to working, and my family offered for me to move back in with them.

It also depends on the individual and how much change they are willing to take on. In my business life I'm always in a constant change, always reinventing myself, improving how I would and be more efficient at what I do. I enjoy taking on new challenges, it keeps the spice in life. At almost 60, I cannot begin to count the many changes I've gone through in my business career even though many times I resisted change it always worked for the best.

Changes in my personal life though? Drastic enough to start over? I think for me it would be harder to do now but not impossible. As mentioned before, it would depend on the situation.

I agree it would depend on the situation, but in general I believe it would be easier for a younger person to start over if you're talking about finances. At 20 or 30-something there are a lot more opportunities to find and change jobs, especially in the blue collar arena. Pit a 30-year-old worker against a 40-year old of the same, and see who gets hired first... it's usually the younger one (at least in America.) Having that advantage makes it more feasible to go back to college to gain even more opportunities if need be too. It's also easier in your 20s or 30s to look a fresh 30-year term mortgage in the face because you can assume you'll be working long enough to pay it off. That's not so true once you hit 40 or so. And once you reach the age of fixed income, you're screwed unless you managed to put back a pretty big nest egg when you were younger.

I think the peak for starting over might be late 30's....but then others do have no choice but to start over after the loss of a spouse later in life.