I agree you do get more conservative with regard to financial risk as you grow older, and, IMO, that’s a good thing.
If the financial risks many of us took when we were young paid off as planned, we find we don’t have to put ourselves at risk later in life, and that is as it should be.
The greatest fear some of my non-union career friends have, is losing their jobs in their 50’s and not being able to get another job, or not having enough funds to retire at that point in time. Looking at the dismal stats on retirement funds in this country, that is a very real problem.