The COVID-19 pandemic challenged Australians in ways they hadn't been tested before: with curfews, mask mandates, border closures, restrictions on movement and the shutdown of normality.Those severe measures may have helped keep Australians alive, but they also exacted a substantial toll in many other ways.The shock is that data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) suggests we were actually happier in 2020 than we are now."We're feeling worse about the world today than we were during the pandemic lockdowns," Terry Rawnsley, urban economist at consulting firm KPMG Australia, says."When you look at life satisfaction on a scale of one to 10, in 2020, when we're in the middle of the pandemic, life satisfaction was 7.2 out of 10. Last year, it was 7.1."Terry Rawnsley says financial pressures have eroded many Australians' satisfaction with life. (Supplied: KPMG)The ABS data shows how increasing financial stresses mean people feel less satisfied with their lives than when they couldn't travel more than 5 kilometres from their homes."There was uncertainty for sure. But it wasn't kind of the cost-of-living crunch that we're seeing now," Mr Rawnsley said."Real wages are lower than they were in 2020, median household wealth is actually flat over that five-year period, per-capita spending is also pretty flat, so it's no surprise people are less satisfied with their lives because they're feeling that financial pressure."Real wages are your wage minus the impact of rising costs. So, if your salary goes up, but the speed of inflation is higher, your ability to use that money — your purchasing power — goes down. For most Australians, that is what has been happening.'Larger burdens' to making life workThe COVID pandemic was a world of individualism and screens, with people isolated behind masks and keeping their distance through Zoom calls.It is the complete opposite of the warm and deeply analogue vibe in Melbourne store and craft workshop, That Paper Joint.Zoe Crook says life is better for her in 2026 than during the pandemic.