LIFE!? How has yours progressed?

HawkinsHollow · Oct 30, 2025

I have been meaning to post this for a while but I was spurred on by a comment Eddie made in the Barn with Lean to post on Monday. He said, "But now that I'm 60 years old, I've sort of lost interest in traveling and really prefer to spend my time on the farm, working on projects and making everything nicer."

That struck a cord with me. I spent my younger years 18-45 chasing adventures all over the globe. Whitewater kayaking, mountain biking, climbing mountains, skiing and snow boarding. Both in the US and travelling to developing countries on a shoestring budget to stretch my dollars to play longer. I lived for this adventure, it fueled my soul. Last 3 or 4 years (I'm 51 yo) I have settled WAY down and honestly am VERY content being home, working in the shop or out on the property on projects. For the last year I have been doing a quite extensive renovation of our existing home and adding an 850 sqft addition. I am 100% content piddling away at finishing this project everyday, either on the weekends or after work. No desire to get out mountain biking or go kayaking. Don't really care to go to the brewery with freinds to get a beer. I do need to get to the gym more though!!! My question is; is this a normal as you age?

I have never been a good saver/investor. I feel like part of this new mindset stems from the fact that I see retirement looming. We are doing ok, but not amazing preparing for retirement. Because of that I feel like if I grind and work hard for the next 10-15 years I will be in a much better place. That has now taken precedence to hanging out with friends or playing on weekends. Tell me about how your life progressed as you aged. LOTS of collective knowledge about LIFE here. Share what you can. Thanks!

dodge man · Oct 30, 2025

I retired at age 58 five years ago. We always traveled a lot but we are now taking more expensive vacations, such as Ireland and Switzerland. I’ve never been into extreme sports and we were pretty conservative financially. We are pretty much home bodies when we can be. My son lives 10 minutes away but my daughter 3 hours away so traveling to see her eats up some time.

I think it’s normal as you get older to not want to travel. I see it in my sister who is older and saw it in my parents as they got older.

Eagle1 · Oct 30, 2025

I traveled for 23 year on the job and burned out. Walked away and bought a campground. Now retired, closed the business and homestead the place. My dream place in a lot of ways. I may go months without going any place at all. Nothing better than puttering around, hunting or even do some fishing with out the people drama.

RjCorazza · Oct 30, 2025

I retired 12 years ago, and am now 63. I was never much of a traveling type, and preferred to stay close to home. What I do find as I get older, is that I am much more patient in general.

dodge man · Oct 30, 2025

I would strongly agree on being more patient as I grow older. It’s a good habit to get at a younger age along with being less angry.

I took our car in for a recall and they scratched the door pretty bad. There was a time I would have been pretty upset. They offered to repaint the door and I said that’s all I can ask for. It’s in the shop now, we’ll see how that goes.

Rockbadchild · Oct 30, 2025

I've never been much interested in traveling, but that's me...Things can be different for person to person but there is something to be said about having the opportunity to look back and visually see what you have accomplish and spend your money on, that is super rewarding and addicting... For me purchasing my property has been a game changer to the point I ask myself what I was doing before I purchased it. Now all I want to do is go there and work and that's all I am doing. My drive is long enough to get to work and back plus my time off seem to get shorter and shorter and traveling makes it feel even shorter so I rather stay at the property with my dogs.

QRTRHRS · Oct 30, 2025

While there are places that I have never seen but would like to, I doubt that I ever will. Our driving mostly consists of going to doctor visits, maybe lunch and some shopping. Else, I would just as soon be doing something at home. I have a gym of sorts set up in my garage so I don't need to drive for that. We are down to two horses, both 24 years old so they need daily care plus one dog and three cats. Unless I have a project going on that needs my full attention, I just kind of ease into the day. I might notice a tree that needs attention while mowing grass. So, I will finish the mowing then get the chain saw out. I might be putting up some tools then decide that it is a good day to straighten up my shop or put together a load for the flea market. I may only set up at the market once or twice a year but I enjoy chatting with others while selling some things that I no longer need. Having spent a lot of time on the road driving, I have long since gotten away from hanging out. Nor do I enjoy driving these days (see the tail gating thread).

old and tired · Oct 30, 2025

I did everything I wanted to, skied every mountain in US and most in Canada, Hot air balloons, sky dived, all the water sports... traveled all of US (except Rhode Island)... the good thing is I saved in 401k (wife made me do it) lucky for me, she saved even more. We never splurged on travel, backpacking tents are fine, as well as cheap hotels. Never bought boats, or other man toys - almost everything I bought in life was used (except the tractor!!).

Retired 2.5 years ago and could have/should have retired earlier. My wife retired 7 years ago and still likes to travel. I'm fine with taking care of the dog and hanging around the houses.

Yes, "worlds" get smaller as the years go on...

MossRoad · Oct 30, 2025

Really, not much has changed for us over the past 46 years. We dated for 6 years before we got married and it was another 7 until our first child, so we had plenty of time to do, how shall I put it, young adult stuff!

Once the kids arrived, we did more family oriented things, lots of parks, playgrounds, walks in the woods, museums, zoos, fishing, hiking, etc... As kids grow, you get more into their school, sports and social life. We gained a large group of parent friends through our kids and still hang out with them today.

We managed to take two small 1 week vacations one year, then one big 2 week vacation the next. We alternated that for the next 30 years. Still do it. Still plan on doing it after we retire in about 18 months. Plus visit the kids more and do a lot of volunteer work.

We've always taken day trips out of town about every other weekend. Now that the kids are gone, we're doing more of that, and just last weekend we discussed leaving an overnight bag in the car with a change of clothes in case we decide to stay somewhere. We have cats, so we could be gone a week and they wouldn't notice. We visit parks and museums. Go out with friends. Hit the flea markets and antique stores. Visit with family. And of course, work around the house and property. We just expect to do more of that and less work that pays money in the future.

We really don't expect any big changes other than we can sleep in if we want to.

jyoutz · Oct 30, 2025

I’m 65, and planned to retire 2 years ago. Then my wife was diagnosed with a terminal condition, so I kept working partly to pay for her care and partly to avoid being homebound. She passed last spring and I kept working to have a stable focus in life. I have traveled a lot domestically for work, but only a bit for family fun. I would like to retire and do some international and domestic leisure travel, but it’s no fun alone. I have a girlfriend now, so we’ll see what the future brings. We did book a Mexican cruise next spring.

masseyrider · Oct 30, 2025

I'm solidly in my 60s.
So much has changed.
At the drop of a hat I would take off. I remember when I was aboot 17 calling home to let my mother know where I was. I had left for school the morning before and was just getting to Key Largo. She wasn't surprised.
It was much more innocent back then. My buddy and I had gas and food money and the beaches were full of girls.
I've been all over Europe, Caribbean and Africa.
Now I can't be bothered. I've seen enough beaches, old castles and buildings to last a lifetime.
I'm not driven for the adventures of old. Don't really want to white water raft the Zambezi again or climb Kilimanjaro a second time.
Unless there are friends there I ain't going.
One of the last extended travels I do have on the agenda is to spread my parents ashes.
My father to Auschwitz. He never got over that and I think in some way he would rest easier if he was returned to the place of horror he somehow survived.
My mother, to Ternopil which is in Ukraine now but prior to the 2nd WW was part of Poland. She always spoke of her happy childhood there. Darn Russians still causing trouble.
I'm perfectly happy taking the GT for a cruise in season, puttering around, going for coffee with the other old farts and talking aboot the old times that are probably better now than when they actually happened.
Although I don't think now or then could I top making love to a beauty under a full moon with the waves lapping in, on the hood of my car, on a Florida beach at midnight.

MossRoad · Oct 30, 2025

My mom passed in her early 60s. My dad was 8 years older than her and about to retire. He was a very social person, so my siblings and I encouraged him to join a club for widows and widowers. He met a woman and they became travel companions and went all over the place together for many years.

MossRoad · Oct 30, 2025

masseyrider said:
I'm solidly in my 60s.
So much has changed.
At the drop of a hat I would take off. I remember when I was aboot 17 calling home to let my mother know where I was. I had left for school the morning before and was just getting to Key Largo. She wasn't surprised.
It was much more innocent back then. My buddy and I had gas and food money and the beaches were full of girls.
I've been all over Europe, Caribbean and Africa.
Now I can't be bothered. I've seen enough beaches, old castles and buildings to last a lifetime.
I'm not driven for the adventures of old. Don't really want to white water raft the Zambezi again or climb Kilimanjaro a second time.
Unless there are friends there I ain't going.
One of the last extended travels I do have on the agenda is to spread my parents ashes.
My father to Auschwitz. He never got over that and I think in some way he would rest easier if he was returned to the place of horror he somehow survived.
My mother, to Ternopil which is in Ukraine now but prior to the 2nd WW was part of Poland. She always spoke of her happy childhood there. Darn Russians still causing trouble.
I'm perfectly happy taking the GT for a cruise in season, puttering around, going for coffee with the other old farts and talking aboot the old times that are probably better now than when they actually happened.
Although I don't think now or then could I top making love to a beauty under a full moon with the waves lapping in, on the hood of my car, on a Florida beach at midnight.

You're lucky to be here with your father's survival of that place. I know a woman that was born in Dresden, Germany and her folks got out right as the war started. Sounds like a good plan for their ashes.

As for the love part, man, the sand gets in all kinds of places and I was worried for you until the hood of the car showed up.

orezok · Oct 30, 2025

We are currently on our very last camping trip in the RV. I’m 78 and the wife is 82. Time to pull that plug. Traveled over much of the US and never had the urge to go abroad. There is SO MUCH to see in this country and it keeps the $$$ with our people.

Now it’s basically “hibernating” on our 26 acres. We hardly ever go out to dinner anymore.

Home is the happy place.

bigtiller · Oct 30, 2025

The opening line of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities is, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". That pretty much describes the 1980's for me....an unwanted divorce, the farm crises, 5 year layoff from John Deere and marrying the prettiest girl in the county - she can cook too!

All the rest of the years went amazingly well. I've been retired for over 20 years and our income is still about 2.5 times larger than our expenses.

NorTracNY · Oct 30, 2025

Work sent me to Europe, Hawaii, coast to coast in US, and China. I will travel if my family wants, but I'm happy to be at home and in my community. It's clear that this is the country with the most freedoms and I have no desire to be abroad. I fear some of the changes I'm seeing, especially in NY that are coming from abroad.

I'm not retired yet, but mentally I'm adjusting and preparing to do so. I'm doing my best to let the stress go.

kenmbz · Oct 30, 2025

I am in my 60s need to work for 4 more years to cover sons College or I would be already retired.
I have worked in over a dozen countries, visited over 40 and still have a few on my list to see.

I used to travel most of the time, gave that up to raise our son and was about 2 trips per year.
Now down to 1 trip year to visit dying father and hopefully see my aged uncle soon in California.

ronjhall · Oct 30, 2025

Life has been good for the most part. Got married young at 20. My wife and I had many good times. 2 great kids. Raced Go-karts, cars, snowmobile, and motorcycles. Then we moved where I now live in 1972. We loved it. Took me 23 years to find out my wife loved to fish. For the next 25 years we enjoyed Great Lakes fishing and our place in the country. Last boat was 32’. After retirement in 2004 bought a motorhome. Sold the boat. Traveled over 12 years with it. Sold it when wife became too ill to travel. She died 6 years ago. Sure would love to have her back. 57 years of marriage. She left me with many good memories.
Today I have family, friends and neighbors that I use to enjoy my life in the country. Oh yah and 2 Kubota tractors with a full barn of attachment’s.
Just started my 22nd year of retirement.
Traveling was part of my job as a field service engineer. Gave me and my wife the desire to see what there was not time to do before retirement.
Two of my best memories.

Lastkidpicked · Oct 30, 2025

This thread is perfect timing!

A few weekends ago I was brush hogging the pasture and on the laps that I was facing the neighbor's garage I saw him getting the boat and camper together for one last summer trip.

All I could think was, "Good for you, neighbor, but given the choice I'm happier to stay here and run the tractor"

CalG · Oct 30, 2025

I'm older... every day. 73 working on 74, Hard!

Just got a new motorbike, and a different mountain bike. I love two wheels.

The local ice rink opened Tuesday. I'll be there again tomorrow. 10:30 to noon is adult skate, and 65+ skate free! ;-)

I'm set to spend four days every week up on the local ski mountain as a patroller, setting fence, signs and ropes. Hauling broken skiers off the mountain in tobogons.

I only go to town when I need something.
I could care less what is going on there, or anywhere really. Don't need to see the world at all. America is GREAT!
Wife and I went on a week long camping trip a few weeks back. Pickup truck, tent, and state parks. Easy to enjoy.
I went to the range yesterday with two buddies. We shot all sorts of projectiles , made bang sounds and laughed a lot.

I spend a lot of time "out in the shop" doing things that no one else can tell.

The wife and I are still in love and are having fun.

I appreciate almost anything and everything, "just glad to be alive".

Grattitude is everything!