Mid-forties are a decision point. It's when you decide to either get healthy, and stay healthy the rest of your life, or... you don't.
Your body starts falling apart faster if you don't maintain it. Unlike the years before, the health losses are forever.
Fair warning.
I was one of those lucky elder millennials who got to own a home by my mid 20s. Bought cheap, the market exploded and several years later made bank off the sale of the property. I thought for once in my life I would treat myself and wife and go after our dream home. I successfully did it and it was great, but real life caught up, had to take care of my grandmother and disabled sister since no one else in the family would. It drained our bank account and had to sell the house at a massive loss and am now living with in laws in a converted shed in their backyard. Now, strapped with debt, I barely see a way back to home ownership, even renting is not in the cards for at least a couple years.
It's awful that in the span of 3 years I went from the happiest, most comfortable I've been in my entire life, to the most stressed and on the verge of homelessness, all due to fucking shit healthcare and shit ass family.
Iβm old enough to remember selling Tupperware as a viable economy.
Your 40s are where your life situations and choices seem to catch up to you
In your 20s people largely look young and energetic, regardless of whether they exercise, how they eat, whether they smoke, etc.
By the 40s, the smokers look terrible, the people with poor diet and exercise arenβt no longer getting away with it as their metabolism slows, etc. These are the years where you start to see the trajectories diverge.
By the 60s, I see people who are as spry as they ever were, and people who are resigned to the end being near.
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