Early Retirement Extreme Forums

31, male.

I'm almost 40 by now.

53

Almost 32 though I am a still a few years away from being FI. I started reading the ERE blog back in 2008. I guess I'm getting old.

I will say though that I own the first copy of the ERE book that Jacob has signed.

Partial hijack! So based on my personal 40 years of observations, I note the following:

* How old anyone personally feels (emotionally/maturity/intellectually/...) seems to be rather fixed in time and it only rarely changes. If it does change, it seems to jump. I've known many a 60+ yos who still feel like a late teen inside. And I've met late teens who feel like they're 60+ inside. It seems as if humans have only a couple of stages, e.g. 20something, 40something, 60something, foreversomething, they identify with internally and that that identification does not change with chronological age.

* On a related basis, it's said that if you're young and not leaning left, you have no heart. If you're old and no leaning right, you have no brain. This seems to be true --- something I realized with age.

* On a very related basis, I would have found my 20 yo self positively obnoxious!!! We're equally intelligent. We have the same temperament. But out values are very different because of the jump I took in my mid 20s.

* It's not completely obvious to me what causes some jumps other than it closer correlated with diversity of life experience and/or personality than chronological age.

* Physiologically, one can maintain "youthful vigor" into the 70+. However, after age 30 it requires actual deliberate effort and the lack of such effort really shows---kids get a free ride being able to eat pizza and wet newspaper while still doing fine. Elders, not so. The difference is cumulative and proportional to effort in both directions: destructive and ameliorative.

That's all I have for now.

@pooablo - Unless I'm getting senile (a likely possibility), you own the ONLY copy I ever signed!

oh dang - I should've taken my book to the Chicago meetup to have Jacob sign it. Duh!!!

@Pooablo -- I see a money-making opportunity here. Who's going to start the bidding?

Yeah maybe some day pooablo's copy is gonna be worth zillions whereas C40s' copy is gonna be worth about $8.41

Hey pooablo, how much will you offer me not to sign another copy ever?

I would've tried to forge the signature, and since there would only be two, I can claim mine is genuine and Pooable's is not. But now that you've confirmed it here, I'm going to have steal Pooable's identity...

I think I'm gonna have to hire a bodyguard now

Ok - back on topic - I'm in my mid 30's

ENTP, so 50 going on 5.

jacob wrote:Partial hijack! So based on my personal 40 years of observations, I note the following:

* How old anyone personally feels (emotionally/maturity/intellectually/...) seems to be rather fixed in time and it only rarely changes. If it does change, it seems to jump. I've known many a 60+ yos who still feel like a late teen inside. And I've met late teens who feel like they're 60+ inside. It seems as if humans have only a couple of stages, e.g. 20something, 40something, 60something, foreversomething, they identify with internally and that that identification does not change with chronological age.

DW says I have two ages. Eighty is one. And three is the other. And nothing in between.

33!

I'm 27...turning 28 in August. Always felt like an old soul though.

31.

It appears the average is moving up?
On this thread it's 39.5 including myself, the median is 37.5 (n=28)

42 and not overly thrilled about it.

Although I am technically a millennial by the numbers (I think), I identify more with gen-X values and I think gen-X is more inclined to relate to ERE principles. I think I saw a discussion on this somewhere on this forum.

Explains why the average age is mid 30's to mid 40's with some outliers.

Both the DW and I have always felt like we have old souls.