The volume examines, through a representative survey, the interpretation of life and life planning in late midlife. While youth must seek identity, the preservation of identity is the task of midlife. Professional, familial, and ideological positions are to be maintained. This requires reflection on one’s life path. How 16-year-old former high school students interpret their lives at ages 30, 43, and 56 is the first topic of the book. How are profession and work valued, and how satisfied are individuals? Do they see themselves as the architects of their own fortune? Do they retain inherited religious beliefs? And how do political values change throughout one’s professional life? Additionally, in late midlife, when retirement becomes foreseeable, the question of identity search arises anew. Do individuals want to continue their old profession, or start something new in their career, civil society, or private life?.