I’m younger than that, but thinking about this period of my life seems kind of scary.
For one thing, you aren’t young enough to retire or get social security and medicare, but you are old enough that employers won’t want to hire you if you get fired or laid off. You are too young for medicare, but health insurance on the private market is insanely expensive (the ACA helped with that a bit luckily).
For another, your parents are probably dead. When you are younger, if things go really wrong, you can always move in with parents (I would assume). By your 50s that isn’t an option. Maybe siblings or friends would help, but I don’t know. I could always move back with my mom and dad if things go really wrong. In a few decades that will not be an option.
Plus your health is possibly reaching a point where full time employment starts to seem harder and harder to hold onto. You may be too young to retire and survive financially, too old to be healthy enough to work full time.
It seems like a scary period where you just hope you can hold things together with your health, finances and ability to work until retirement because if you can’t, you’re fucked. Is that a valid assumption, or am I being pessimistic?
I’m 58, looking for work, existing by cannibalizing my retirement accounts, and scared as hell… And my health hasn’t yet started to deteriorate. When that happens, I figure I’m screwn.
On the other hand, you never stop improving your education, never stop learning, and never stop maturing. I may still be a damn fool…but not half the fool I was twenty years ago!
It depends where you are at in life. If things are in the crapper, or at high risk of being in the crapper, then probably yeah. Being unemployed in your 50s has to be scarier than many other times. Younger with kids at home to take care of maybe worse but at least there is more hope then of both re-employment and of being able to re-invent yourself.
On the other hand many in their 50s are feeling pretty secure in their jobs and have reached points in their careers where they are respected by others and they are confident in their health. Unemployment rates in that age group actually tend to be pretty low. Also they are seeing children becoming “launched” adults. Now whether the prospect of being an empty nester is positive or negative likely varies for the individual and some have a bit of sympathetic anxiety for their adult children’s futures … Overall though many in their 50s are holding good cards and are really feeling at the top of their game. Some of course have not yet really realized that their retirement plan is not quite up to the task of letting them retire when they thought they would, and have not considered the possibility that their health status could change on a dime, leaving them with barely one.
Ignorance is a wonderful aid to not being afraid.
I am still a damn fool but I have better appreciation of my foolishness and as a result more confidence in the areas I am not such an idiot. There’s that anyway.
I’m 53 and having the time of my life. I’m healthy, earning enough, and the kids are grown. One downside, it sucks to have the parents dead or dying, a lot of people I know are losing parents these days. But, circle of life and all that.
Yeah, I’ve read that before. I thought about adding it to my OP, however that theory found middle age was the worst period for people. The lowest valley was in the 50s, after that it starts rising again.
I’m 52. My health is pretty good. I can find well-paying contract work but any sense of stability, paid time off, and insurance I don’t have to pay through the nose for is a fond memory. I have two girls that are about to turn 12. I can count the nights of decent sleep I’ve had in the past 3 months on one hand.
My late 40’s were pretty damn scary what with 5+ years of un- and underemployment, my early 50’s are improving significantly.
My health and strength are fine, I’m regularly doing work shifts lifting 20-40 pounds repeatedly, walking 10-15 miles a shift, and took some excess weight off since last summer.
Losing parents sucks - mom is gone, and dad has terminal cancer. On the other hand, I still have two living sisters and good friends and my spouse.
Yes, some things are scary. Every decade - 20’s, 30’s, 40’s - has had something scary going on. At this point I’ve come to realize that life is always a mix of scary and wonderful. That’s an upside - life experience has given me a perspective that means I don’t panic nearly as easily as when I was young.
I am in my fifties. I have a solid but not exciting career, I am the trainer and mentor to all new hires and I am well respected in the industry. Both daughters are independent young women, we have been through my neck issues and my Wife’s cancer. I am more settled, content and happy now than I have ever been in my life.
Doesn’t have to be scary at all, especially if you have experience. When I was 51, I quit a solid government job, moved halfway around the world and was hired immediately to a supervisory position. Five years later (age 56) I was the department director, making $70K. I got head-hunted to another job as the Chief Operating Officer, making $155K. Not long after I was hired to another management job at age 58, making $117K. At age 61, I was hired as a project quality control manager at $90K. My wife and I both worked until age 62, then retired.
You have to stay viable in your field and present an aura of confidence for a company to take a chance on you.
I, personally, liked my 50’s once I was through menopause and my daughter was in college. I had the house to myself, my health and energy were pretty good, and as I was early retired, had time for ME. I didn’t have to work and I could begin to let go of stuff. There came upon me, gradually and to this day, an urge to start getting rid of things cluttering up the house, I’m working on it slowly. I don’t have to worry about impressing people, or looking hot for men, or keeping my mouth shut so as not to rock the boat. I have travelled a long path through life, the end is, while not in sight quite yet, is around the bend, so before I get totally decrepit or disabled, it’s a good time to enjoy life as much as possible.
My view is that the first few years of life (when everything is new and strange) and the last few years of life (when your health goes bad) would be the scariest.
Everything you say is potentially true. And one thing I would add - sort of health-related but not entirely - is that your 50s is when your looks/attractiveness to the opposite sex really takes a nosedive (or maybe it actually happened earlier, but you reach the point where self-delusion is less and less possible).
And for the first time in my life, at age 56, I am finding it’s really quite hard to keep from gaining weight. As I ruefully put it, “at this point in my life I can afford to go to expensive restaurants and buy whatever pricy delicacies/cooking ingredients I want - but if I eat like I did when I was 25 and couldn’t afford all of that stuff, I’ll balloon out.” Perhaps that’s a minor point, but it’s annoying having to deprive myself day after day and realizing this will have to continue forever unless my appetite decreases more.
However, that doesn’t mean you HAVE to be unhappy in your 50s. Some of your situation will involve luck and some of it advance planning. My husband (he’s 58) and I are fairly happy, because we’ve taken care of our health, have a comfortable level of savings, and haven’t had anything awful happen to us. Actually a lot of our happiness is looking forward to a not-to-distant and delightful future, since we hope to be able to retire on the early side and have a helluva wonderful, active life on Hawaii’s Big Island. The anticipation buoys us on frustrating days.
Two possibly important issues for 50-something: do you like your job/is it the culmination of what you wanted in your career? Did you have any kids, and if so how are they doing? Both of those questions have a wide variety of answers and could have a huge impact on personal happiness. (For my husband and me - we’re both pretty sick of our jobs, but our 16-year-old son is a source of joy, as he seems to be turning out quite well and rarely gives us a moment’s worry.)
During my fifties I will be responsible for teaching all three of my kids to drive, will be responsible for 2 1/2 college educations, and both of my parents will reach the current average age of death for an American, so at a minimum I’m anticipating a pretty wild ride.
The wife and I are in our mid-50s, and we’re starting to plan some near-term changes that could be scary. The wife recently decided to retire this year after 30 years in her post. We’re thinking if we really do move back to Hawaii like we’ve always kicked around, we ought to do it before we reach 60, and that’s going to be a major upheaval if we decide to proceed with that plan. It’s not scary now, but there are some big unknowns looming soon.
I put up with a lot more than I usually do at work in my 50’s. I got lucky and made it through without a hitch but I was nervous about building up my retirement or getting fired. I was putting my kids through college and it ate up my entire savings. I ended up retiring at 63 with a decent retirement.
I beat the rush and started my health issues in my twenties. But getting close to 60 things like real adulthood (savings, work, stability and all that) get real important real fast. I would say I entered my 50s as a teenager and I’m leaving them slightly older and wiser. Still silly – but not about everything.
