I’m curious… what do child-less/childfree couples do at 40+ to keep life interesting and keep growing, both together and as individuals? Just looking for some ideas & recommendations… both things to try for fun and also ways to grow more deeply.
What’s worked for you or the people you’ve known?
Some background… (totally optional reading; more interested in your experiences, but sharing this just for context):
My partner and I have been together a few years now. We don’t have or want kids. In the time we’ve been together, we’ve traveled a bunch, played many board games, raised pets, made new friends, acquired new hobbies. Together we’ve learned many things: kayaking, mountain biking, martial arts, some Native American history, and also took several one-off classes like welding and blacksmithing. We’re taking another art class together soon. She’s learning guitar. I volunteer at a museum and give short nature talks. She watches way too much TV and I play way too many video games. That’s our lives in a nutshell. It’s a nice, comfortable existence.
But we’re also quite different in one regard: the need for novelty, change, and growth (especially for me). She went to trade school and then jumped straight into a career that she’s kept for three decades. In that same period, I flip-flopped through 3-4 different college majors and too many jobs to count, across different fields & states. She’s lived in two cities her whole life, moving away from her hometown for the first time at age 30ish. I’ve lived in many places across the world, from childhood onward. Meeting me added a flurry of excitement (and endless chaos) to her life, while meeting her gave me some much-needed stability (and sanity). She has her feet firmly planted on the ground while I’ve always been more head-in-the-clouds. It’s the ol’ “opposites attract”, I suppose 
Anyway, through these last few years, we’ve managed to find a good working balance of stability and growth, and I’d like to keep that going however we & I can. As we work to save for an eventual house (maybe), I’m also looking for ways to keep developing in life, character, and our relationship.
For myself, I dearly miss the constant & diverse intellectual stimulation of university. I’d go back to school to seek a master’s (or three) if I could, but that’s not really an option right now where I’m at, either geographically or financially — though I hope that will change in 3-4 years, with the addition of a new university extension here and some money I’ll try to save.
In the meantime, my current job (as a software developer) is often rewarding but rarely challenging, yet other career prospects in the small town we’re in are quite limited. My last local company laid off 90% of my team; many are still job-seeking, while one became a full-time farmer instead (I’m kinda jealous).
To keep my mind engaged, I’ve taken classes at the local community college — everything from math to signing — started and seriously invested in another martial art, watched a bunch of documentaries, and generally just spent a lot of time trying & learning various new things, though without necessarily being able to keep a sustained focus on them long-term.
I think what I really crave is something I can learn and develop over time, with a high skill ceiling, that’s a mix of self-paced learning but also opportunities to be social and collaborative, like a project or some useful, shareable skillset. I was thinking of learning to draw, maybe? My mother was an artist and I’ve always enjoyed art and design, but never seriously devoted time to it beyond some occasional graphics work in my job. It sounds fun on paper (no pun intended), but I’m also worried it could end up being too solo & lonely an activity?
It would be cool to find something that she and I could both invest in and enjoy and develop together, despite our different personalities. Any ideas?