Tell me what you *love* about being in your 50s, please

[bdaygal]

I'm just about to turn 50. Please inspire me by telling me what you love about turning 50, being a fifty-something. What makes this decade great.

Anything inspiring you or other fifty-something women are doing or have done?

Thank you!

No mortgage or rent, which gives the security of knowing the roof over your head is there even if illness or redundancy hits you.

It's in my past now, as am 65+

At 50 I moved to another country. I took on supply teaching and was HOD in four months.

50s are okay. Post-periods is great. I feel far more stable and in control.

I'm richer than I've ever been (it was a low bar). It's lovely not having to worry too much about money although I'm pretty cheap to run.

The bit I don't like is I feel much more tired than I used to. I used to have more energy than I knew what to do with. Now I have to pace myself a bit.

It's also a bit lonely. I live on my own and had started some activities to try to make new friends but covid has meant this last ten months pretty much on my own. I re-watched Tom Hanks in Castaway recently and totally identified with him BUT I'd never live with a man again. I like my space and independence. Friendships are much better than marriage!

Still need to work but have opted to leave the corporate world for a low pay charity job which gives me much more satisfaction.

Agree more time with friends as children fly the nest.

Turned 50 in lockdown.
Kids are teens and very independent and I have more time to myself than in my 40s. Hence I’m fitter and finally lost the stone and half I’ve been needing to since my last pregnancy.
Marriage feels stable and comfortable.
Mortgage paid off (though now saving for 3 teens at uni!)
More self confident and assertive and don’t care what anyone thinks of my hairstyle, my clothes, my opinions.

They were so much better than my 60s 😂

I don't like anything about being in my 50's.
Only good thing and it's not really a like - is that my house went up in value and my mortgage went down which meant for the very first time in my life I could buy the house I wanted rather than the one I could afford.

I am happy to be here. Lost a family member in their 40s so I am grateful.

I look ancient but feel absolutely the same as I always did. No aches and pains.

Menopause has been ok, glad periods have finished. I seem to be less anxious than I was and am thinking i can perhaps credit menopause for that.

Oh, I've switched from doing Jillian Michaels style workouts 4 times a week and really dreading them! (even though they work) to doing yoga every day and enjoying it. I'm just not putting that much pressure on myself ever again.

Not caring one jot what people think.

@Mydogisagentleman where in spain do you think you'll retire to?
I have people in Almeria but it's not an area I'd naturally be drawn to. Not my first choice. I love the idea of pontevedra but I would need to do a rekky first. What's your plan?

I'm 53, 54 in the first quarter of the year, I still have periods, fgs.

I'm pretty chilled out and content, I still have dc at home but they're teens and self sufficient, dh and I have the time for the gym now. We're both ex professional athletes so that's really important for us (lockdown not counting). I still have my parents and I'm enjoying having more time for them (again, lockdown not counting). No mortgage is very freeing, retirement doesn't terrify me anymore, in fact dh and I have plans to travel.
I'm actually sitting here watching football Googling hobbies, I think I might take up duolingo. My house, which has always been functional with kids, is now starting to look a bit more put together, now I have some time to do it.

I had a very very quiet 50th in lockdown. We'd planned a huge family weekend away in a massive country house complete with pool and 3 acre garden near the coast, so it could have felt horribly flat but my DDs made a huge effort to make the day special and I'm so grateful to them.

I am enjoying being 50. I don't worry about how I look, only how I feel. I choose clothes and shoes only by comfort, and gave up trying to be fashionable years ago. I'm far more confident than I was in my 30s, enjoy my career (running a business with DH). Love love love having adult children; and now have 4 grandchildren that are a complete source of wonder. We've got a mortgage free lovely home, a good income and pension, my parents are still alive and well. I love my 2 dogs, and am suddenly aware of the need to value each and every moment while I'm well and healthy.

Just waiting for the menopause/periods to stop and life will be sweet .

Having the kids grown up is bliss and makes life easier.
Don’t like the menopause, weight gain, aches and pains.

All you lucky ladies with no periods.
I’m 54 and still regular ☹️

But apart from that:
No mortgage,
adult daughters who are lovely and don’t live at home
Plenty of disposable income
Could leave my job if I want
Planning retirement soon
Long loving marriage
Can do as we please (pre covid)

Tiny mortgage, more confident, kids are grown up, looking forward to down sizing then taking in less stressful jobs and enjoying more free time than we've ever had.

I'm more assertive and find it easy to say no to things. I worry less about what other people think and am generally more confident.
I care less what people think of me - that constant sensitivity about whether I'm liked or not has gone. I try to be kind and ethical but some people just won't like me but others will and that's OK
Oh yes, these things. I’m finding it rather freeing and wish I'd felt like that in my 20s/30s 😟

Feel more content with myself (even though my looks are gone!) and am more able to say this isn’t good enough for me and walk away from disappointing behaviour. Unfortunately still having regular (but hideous) periods and still got a few years of mortgage left. Children grown up and independent (well mostly) but parents are needing a lot more care now!

I can't remember
But 60s (fuck covid are great)
Still working full time and spend what I want when I want and do what I want when I want (end covid please).

No mortgage. Financially secure. Looking forward to grandchildren.

Insomnia. Hot flushes. Intense sweating when others are cold. Brain fog. Crampy hands. Erratic periods.

Not having to get up for work. Crafting all day. Snuggling up to DH just for a cuddle.
Life is good. Once the pesky periods fuck off!

Before the pandemic I could go away whenever I was on holiday. Kids are in their 20s/30s. No mortgage. Nearer retirement. Am lucky to have no money worries. I look after myself by exercising. No health worries (at the moment)

Giving a lot less shits

• about grey hair
• about wrinkles
• about fuckwits

Loving

• spending times with my adult kids
• no mortgage
• no hormone cycles

there are negatives
but I ignore them

This is all really inspiring, I was 50 3 weeks ago. And reading this I'm now all fired up with plans for a great decade!

Having adult children.
I can retire in 2 and half years and we can pay the mortgage off then too.
I'm more confident and more easy going for some reason, I don't let people annoy me they way they used too.

More confidence, the ability to not give a damn about other people's opinions, happy to tell more people to fuck off.