RateItAll: The Opinion Network

This is me, and I am highly amused to see that several other reviewers on this decade are in their teens or twenties. To hear them, I might as well start calling up rest homes and checking their rates. Less than three years into this decade, I'm enjoying it. There have been some very good times, and a few bad, but the balance sheet is positive. I have learned, as I hope my youthful friends here will also learn in time, to live in the moment, neither longing for the past, nor fearing the future.

I'm in the early stages of the fifties and so far it has been great. I have two lovely grandchildren and I've been married over 30 years. I enjoy my children, grandchildren, my wife and I have a good job. I am blessed!

So far so good. I just want to make it to the next decade. Once a guy has reached his fifties he's pretty much gotten rid of all the excess baggage in life. This is where I am right now. I've worked hard all my life and I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor right now. This is what my wife and I have been waiting for. I love been a grandfather and the patriarch of the family. Nothing came easy, but I'm living proof that hard work pays off.

Just getting started here, we'll see how it goes, day by day.

in a way i am looking forward to my fifties because this will be the decade in which i retire, but getting older really sucks. i am hoping that i can enjoy my golden years in reasonably good health.

If you have planned well and taken reasonable care of yourself, this is the best time of life. You're still young enough that everything functions and most smaller maladies can be covered with a little Tylenol. You're old enough that you have at least 30 years experience at something, and you've lived long enough to know how the game is played and can tell at a glance who are the serious players and who are the wannabees. If your desire has been to retire early and you've been careful with money, you can now do whatever you like and have the money to do it. If you choose to stay in the working field, your experience just by itself, puts you miles above the young and foolish who think they can change the world now that they have earned a degree. If you've made mistakes and your life isn't where it should be, you still have time left to recover and get on track. Remember..... Colonel Sanders didn't open up his first Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was something like 66 years old so in your fifties you're not yet out of time if you need to change direction. Your fifties should be the time of life when you are able to use everything that you've learned over the years and start making plans for your sixties where hopefully you'll be in a position that you can call all of the shots in your life. Your fifties should mean that you know where you're going, you're smart enough to know how to get there, while at the same time getting the most mileage from each decision. Some people start earlier, some start later, but it should be the decade of brains over brawn.

Why do we americans have such twisted views of old age. Anyway I know alot of people in their fifties and they look great and are no where near being faded old farts. 50 is middle-aged. It is especially a great time for women and hot sex from what I have heard.

Once you start losing your youthful sexy appearance!

This is where most people begin to fade out. They get tired, some die, and some begin needing help from others to survive.