Holy Sh…. I’m old…

[scaredyclassic]

Hey cricket.

What do you want to do?

I am having trouble thinking of anything I want to do other than keep doing what I’m doing.

[svelte]

[quote=scaredyclassic]50 is way freakier than 40 and 30 combined.

50 is the first one that seems liek the end is in sight.

50 is aarp membership eligibility age and you start getting deluged with that stuff..

50 is when your lfie insurance starts to get seriously expensive.

50 is when you are probably past the damn midpoint.

50 is not funny anymore.

luckily, im ok with these things…[/quote]

+1

AARP has been chasing after me since I was 25. I was never quite sure how they got my age so wrong.

Also I just ordered the Toohey book based on your comment. Let’s just hope I find the time to read it. 🙂

[ucodegen]

[quote=scaredyclassic]50 is way freakier than 40 and 30 combined.

50 is the first one that seems liek the end is in sight.

50 is aarp membership eligibility age and you start getting deluged with that stuff..

50 is when your lfie insurance starts to get seriously expensive.

50 is when you are probably past the damn midpoint.

50 is not funny anymore.

luckily, im ok with these things…[/quote]
Forgot, 50 is when Affordable Care Act is really not affordable. Me, umm.. approximately 54, give or take. At least I can still mountain climb, knees are still good. I can bench and curl more weight than I could when I was 18 – so it is not all bad. Vision, well that went a little bit south suddenly a few years ago.

[quote=CricketOnTheHearth]
Like you said above, the feeling really setting in that “I’m running out of time…” and there are so many things I want to do yet.[/quote]
True.

[FlyerInHi]

40 is not old.

60 is the new 40.

plenty of people on TV are in their 60s and older. And TV is an unforgiving business They have been working for decades.

Jimmy Carter is 89. Looks to be still in great health.

[zk]

Yeah, 50 (two years ago for me) was definitely different from 30 or 40.

Here’s when I felt like I’d been around a while: I was computing how many days I’d been working for the company I work for (for seniority purposes). I kept getting a number 8 days different from my employer. I’d been counting 365 days in a year. Turns out I wasn’t counting the EIGHT leap days since I’ve been there. Jesus.

Hitting 50 really made me sit down and ask myself what I want out of the rest of my life and what I’m going to do about it. Although it took another couple years to really come to me. Turns out it isn’t a bucket list type of deal. Heck, I don’t really even feel the need to see the world anymore. I just want to do what I’m doing as long as possible. Spend time with the wife and kid, get in as many rounds of golf, softball games, ping pong games, days at the lake, r/c plane flights, body surfing waves, etc. as I can while I can. Then, if my body can’t take that stuff anymore, I guess I’ll replace the more strenuous hobbies with less strenuous ones.

[CA renter]

Haven’t reached 50 yet, but am much closer to it than I’d care to admit. Just being in the mid-40s makes me realize that many things I might have wanted to do are no longer possible or realistic.

This thread is depressing! 🙁

[kev374]

I turned 40 last month and although I feel I am getting old it’s mostly because I have not married or have kids by now and most of my peers have…so in that sense it feels incomplete.

My relationship of 2 years + that I thought was going to end in marriage also ended recently so that was an additional bummer 🙁 Starting all over with the dating scene at my age seems a bit scary.. as it seems like a crapload of work to filter through all the BS that one has to go through with dating.

In any case, my dad turned 80 recently and he is in peak health, enjoys life etc. My Uncle is even older at 87 and is still having a good old time, he still travels and has a beer or two on occasion…so there is hope 🙂 My grandmother is 93 and although a bit frail is still walking around.

[scaredyclassic]

probably many of your peers have already been througha divorce by now! I think there’s an advantage for taking things slowly in life. and for not catchng on to things too quickly. i also beleive we all have an internal sense of when the right time for things for us is. so i’d say really, you are meant to be where you are…and everything is going to be aok…

[UCGal]

I’m over 50. My 40th was much more a bummer than my 50th. My mom was dealing with terminal cancer, Sept 11th had just happened (which definitely puts things in perspective.)

Between 40 and 50 both parents and my brother died of cancer. That puts a sharp focus on mortality. It’s when I started obsessing with early retirement… so I don’t drone away at a field a no longer love, and then keel over one day, full of regrets.

My husband is older than me by almost 10 years – so I always feel young compared to him. He’s more youthful than me in most ways, though. He’s got longevity on his side – his dad died last year at 90, his mom is 87 and still going strong, physically.

I relish birthdays – at this point they are indications I’m closer to my retirement and freedom. A time when I’ll control my time and activities.

Like Rustico, I’ve got youngish kids (11 and 13) – so I need to be healthy long enough to get them launched at minimum. Even if I died as young as my mom did (67) I should be able to accomplish that.

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=UCGal]I’m over 50. My 40th was much more a bummer than my 50th. My mom was dealing with terminal cancer, Sept 11th had just happened (which definitely puts things in perspective.)

Between 40 and 50 both parents and my brother died of cancer. That puts a sharp focus on mortality. It’s when I started obsessing with early retirement… so I don’t drone away at a field a no longer love, and then keel over one day, full of regrets.

My husband is older than me by almost 10 years – so I always feel young compared to him. He’s more youthful than me in most ways, though. He’s got longevity on his side – his dad died last year at 90, his mom is 87 and still going strong, physically.

I relish birthdays – at this point they are indications I’m closer to my retirement and freedom. A time when I’ll control my time and activities.

Like Rustico, I’ve got youngish kids (11 and 13) – so I need to be healthy long enough to get them launched at minimum. Even if I died as young as my mom did (67) I should be able to accomplish that.[/quote]

Holy cow! That’s a terrible story. Sorry to hear all of that UCGal.

My concerns are the same as your for kids though. Gotta at least get them in college before I punch my ticket.

CE

[CA renter]

Since UCGal and CE have brought it up, anyone else here feel an incredible sense of worry and anxiety once they had kids? Like UCGal, my family has been overrun by cancer, and I’ve lived with at least one of my parents having cancer (5 “deadly” cancers between them, plus non-melanoma skin cancers) since I was 13 years old.

I don’t ever remember being quite as worried about my own mortality when I was younger, but once I had kids, I’ve become obsessed with making it until at least my youngest’s 18th birthday. Been worried ever since I got pregnant.

Anyone else feel this way?

[CA renter]

UCGal, good for you for focusing on early retirement. From everything I’ve seen here, you are doing everything right WRT your finances. It’s good to read about what you’re doing and how you’re managing everything in order to achieve your goals. You’re a great inspiration! 🙂

Wishing you a very long, happy retirement!

[scaredyclassic]

Just bought 1 million term policy.

nothing magical about 18.

most of the heavy lifting is done by 7 or so, psychologically speaking.

money is maybe not quite as important as being there, but it’s comng up close behind….

[NotCranky]

We don’t have a trust. Some very long term friends agreed that they would take our kids and be executors of the trust and then we just dropped it. I am not sure why…I think I feel guilty about putting that on them even though they agreed. Still in Limbo

[FlyerInHi]

Lots of ways you can extend life.
Diet, exercise. You,re not training for a marathon. But training for longevity. Since the time horizon is undetermined, it requires a lot more persistence. Plus your persistence maybe in vain in case of accident or a terminal disease. That’s a risk.

But the data. is very conclusive. Diet and exercise, not in the sun, can make you look and feel 20 years younger.

Stressful sedentary office work that leaves no time for proper diet and exercise will make you age faster for sure.

I’m 47. Through observing other people, I believe there is a vast grey area between 40 and 70. State of mind and health determine how you look and feel. I can do everything I did when I was 30. I’m just wiser now. It gets easier everyday because when I compare myself to my peers the same age, I get confirmation and reinforcement that I’m doing the right things. Success is all relative to the people around you.

Would you ban toxins such as sodas, hot dogs, etc. from your life if you can live longer? If you won’t, maybe you don’t deserve to live longer.

In terms of real estate, think of a 70 year old neighborhood. It would be gorgeous if the houses are meticulously maintained. But if the houses are not maintained, blight creeps in, and eventually the neighborhood is fubar.

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