That naturally comes with the pinball hobby at any age lol

Yup, the timing varies a little but so true. I felt great until 48 then things started going south. Nothing major -- but the eyes are the lovely daily reminder that you are in fact aging (or really just old)-- not being able to read any receipts in Restaurants is a great way to feel like your dad (is that a six or a nine -- oh wait it was fricken 3). Plan on making the next fifteen years or so count -- don't wait.

Take care of your health and work hard. Don't neglect a savings account. I'm 52 and have loved my 30's through 50's. I'm still healthy and as strong as I was at 30 if not stronger. Enjoy life, Brother. And don't stress or worry too much. Most of the things we stress and worry about never come to pass. And lastly, as Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself. This will bring much joy to your life.

Very soon your balls will look like Turkish taffy in July.

And at some point, you'll feel a jiggle walking down stairs and realize you grew breasts.

That's what a friend told me, anyway.

The one with the most pins wins.

Work hard? That's the opposite of good advice. Work (as much as you need) and relax for enjoy the fuck out of the rest.

How my body responds when I stand up too fast:

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I'm finding my 50s are awesome and it's all about perspective. The one piece of advice I'd give is to realize life is a marathon not a race. Keep things in perspective. Things will happen and understand they aren't permanent. No matter what you go through, you got it. You can take care of it and it will always get better.

And one other thing. Stay in shape. Nothing is more important than your health. Always take time to care for yourself. Find something you love and it's fun.

Enjoy!

Things I wish I knew at 30

- Don't worry about things that won't be important in 2 years.

- Be smart about stuff and don't worry about trying to look macho. It is ok to disassemble things to move them. You can hire someone to cut down that giant tree branch.

- Despite what they say, slow and steady may not always win the race, but it will reduce the stress in your life.

Why are you hanging out here, everyone is in their 40's, 50's and 60's? I'm in one of those groups, won't say which one.

Anyway, invest, invest, invest!!! Compound interest and dollar cost averaging are miracles. Invest as much as you possibly can now in your 401K, so you can cruise later in life. Plan now to retire early.

Start stretching - it has made a big difference for me (mid 30s).

- GO OUT AND DO EVERYTHING -

-Visit Tibet/Climb a mountain/Feed an alligator/Skydive/Get Dunk in Rio/Race a car at Salt-lake/Get high in Amsterdam/Dance with whores in Spain/Do the Timewarp/Bungee jump in Colorado/Water Ski in Tahoe/Go Spelunking in Norway/Date a Swedish chick in Monte Carlo/Run with the bulls/Sumo Wrestle in Tokyo/ETC.. ETC...

... because when you are 40, even though you can still do all those things - you won't want to !!

... because when you are 50, you'll shoot like a cruise missile into your midlife crisis - but all your friends will be too fat to join you !!

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Mid 30's here so can't add too much lol but...

1. Put the phone, video games, etc down for a bit and spend time for your parents, family, and friends. Everyone is getting older and one of the hardest things I've found with getting older is losing those close to you. Spend time with the people you care about now, the best thing you can give someone is your time. If you have always wanted to take a trip with let's say your dad do it now, not 5 years from now. Have you ever wanted to send your parents on a mini getaway or to a nice restaurant for a big milestone anniversary or simply to say thanks? Do it now, don't want.

2. Put 15% of paycheck into a 401k, this is before any company match. Do this now and there's a great chance you will be able to retire comfortably in your late 50's / early 60's.

Buy a house.

Heed your health! number one priority. Play more pinball. Number two priority. I'm 68 and made these two mistakes. I'm ok on both, but regret the lack of realization in my youth.

Exercise and eat right for sure.

You should know the Three Laws of F;

If it Flys, Floats, or F#%ks, it’s cheaper to rent it.

Soon, it will take you all night to do what you used to do all night.

As others said, take care of your body. Including your teeth. My dentist once told me "You'll find that you enjoy pain even less when you're 70 than when you're 35..."

If you are still renting (or living in your mum's basement), stop. Buy a house....it remains on average the best investment a person can make.

Don't drink or smoke...the cost alone is a lousy way to spend money. The true value of money lies in insulation. Money insulates you from the cold, the hot, people, hunger, noise, sickness, and boredom. Whoever said money can't buy happiness must have never had money.

God first, always.

I had a friend give a speech at his retirement party where he was describing a conversation he had with his daughter about various milestones that defined the moments of his life. The main takeaway was that there wasn't really a better or worse period of time, they were just different. I just try to make the best of whatever period of life I'm currently living.

Find where you can earn the most money with the least amount of responsibility and effort. Work to live, not the other way around.

Uhhh, this is worse than the work hard advice.

LTG : )

4) Swallows

Fail.

This is the approach I took for a long time, and I've ended up struggling with debt and living paycheck to paycheck my entire adult life up until like a year and a half ago. This is a fool's game. You work hard, so that you spend less time working later on, when you don't have as much capacity to do it. Nobody is saying to go kill yourself for minimum wage here, it's more like be smart about how you work, but make a very solid effort. I *hate* my job, yet I'm consistently on the top of my team, and as such, get very little guff from management. I don't do extreme amounts of extra work to get there, I just do my job in a VERY consistent manner and follow the rules. Most of them.

.......

Username checks out. Someone had to say it.

Not to take advice from old crotchety pinballers.

Agreed. When I was a kid, my dad once told me "Every tooth in your head is worth 500 dollars - take care of them".

My experience has always been that you can't buy happiness, but you sure as hell can rent it.

Painfully true!

35 here, so not that much older, but a few words of advice for you, the group, and anyone younger than me.

1. Having a spouse, life partner, whatever can immeasurably increase the quality of your life. I never successfully asked out a girl in person, but am happily married going on 13 years with 3 kids and life’s never been better. I met my wife on match.com (the internet). People made fun of me for a while, but I went on first dates with well over 40 girls over the course of a year. Going out with lots of girls meant that I got to be choosey and “find who I wanted”. If I had wound up with the first girl who liked me, I would have been miserable. As it is, I wound up with a beautiful Star Trek nerd I am head over hills in love with. We’ve watched (almost) all of Star Trek together. Find a spouse that makes you happy, keep her happy, and be better. Life will be better.

2. Be the best at what you do at work. Most people I know do just enough at work not to get fired. If you run out of work at work, find something productive to help out your co-workers. If that sort of thing is not rewarded or punished at your organization, find a new job or at the very least use the extra time to study for certifications to qualify for new/better work. I’ve been using this strategy since I left the Marine Corps and 4 degrees and a dozen certifications later, I have people tripping over themselves to hire me. On that note… find an organization you like working for. I worked for 4 companies in my first 2 years out of the military but have been at my current one for almost 8 years now. If you find some place that treats you well and promotes from within, stay and grow.

3. It is a lot easier to stay healthy than get healthy. Get an exercise schedule and find something about each activity to keep you interested in it. I bike, row, and run on alternative days. When I bike, I sit on my butt and play Witcher 3 doing it (now that I’ve finished Breath of the Wild). When I row, I save special TV shows for it to keep me rowing longer and have something to look forward to. I watched all of Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad while rowing. Now going through South Park again. Good podcasts are saved for running.

4. You do you. If you have a hobby that you love, find a way to incorporate it into your life (cough cough pinball!).

5. Don’t start a pinball company based off of a pre-order model.

Live long and prosper.

Happy Birthday!

Take good care of yourself.
If you can and feel inspired, buy a house and pay it off as fast as you can. Fixed costs and a roof over your head.
Have balance in your life - you need to make money to save for the future but need to keep yourself sane and healthy.

To quote a late friend who lived over a 100, "Of everything you worry about in life stop to think if it will matter 100 years from now."

Always ask out the girl you’re most attracted to, don’t be intimidated or afraid she will turn you down. If she does turn you down, ask out the next beautiful girl you meet.
Never settle, life is too damn short to live with regrets.

Looking back......it's already too late...27 was the magic number.
Looking forward, you are ..
Old enough to know better, young enough to still learn.

LOL,

Life hasn't even started yet!!!

Here's two for you

People tell the truth when:

1. They're drunk
2. They say they're "kidding" but they're really not.
3. They're tired.

and...

It's not who you are but you know.

I am 46 and I agree with everything in this post in fact this is probably the best post I have seen on Pinside to date.

Sounds to me as though you are doing exactly as he suggested. Just because you earn well doesn't mean you have to work hard.

Im 37, and so far, my 30s have been my most accomplished as far as making a good life for myself goes, but its also been a time of changes. Mostly for the better.

As I approach 40, im really starting to not give a fuck about a lot of things that may have affected me in my 20s.

Being a dad is also cool.

Don't marry the one you want. Marry the one that wants you.

LTG : )

At 30, you are twice as smart as when you were 15. At 60, you'll be twice as smart as you are now.
You were smart enough to ask!

Time speeds up.

Live on less than you earn.
Money and stuff mean less as you get wiser.

Enjoy your health and your partner.

Last, was I did a paper, interviewing 80 plus year Olds. The most common answer to longevity was moderation, a glass of wine, and sex until the end.

If you smoke, go ahead and quit that.

They literally do. When you are 9 you have to wait 1/10th of your life for your next birthday and it seems to take forever_ to come along. When you are 49 you only wait 1/50th of your life for the next one. Comparatively, that's a big difference. Across the street from live a husband and wife who are 99 and 97 respectively - imagine how this year (1/100th of his life) is screaming by for him. For several years I've been telling them both I'm excited as they will be the first centenarians I've known. I believe they've lived in their home since the 1950's.

Beyond all that babbling, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

-Rob
-visit https://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or my Pinball 2000 H+V Video Sync Combiner kit

Some advice my Mom gave me, don't have kid's and don't get old.

I’ll give you another…. If you have good parents … hang out with them as much as possible. When you hit your 40’s they will be getting old and on their health will be failing. You won’t regret the time you spend with them, and the things you will learn from them.

Know your non-negotiables in every relationship and stand by them. Then be flexible on anything else.

This is all you need to know in life.

Happy Birthday! Probably belated now.

Someone told me when I was turning 30 that getting old was not for wimps. I’ll second that!

Those who know don't tell whereas those who tell, don't know.

With that adage in mind, at 62 years old, I have much to tell. . .but, I'll refrain, with one exception.

Sociological studies suggest that self-fulfillment and happiness, especially later in life, derive primarily from strong lifetime relationships with family and friends. Nothing else (fame, fortune, Big Bang Bar 001) matter, absent at least one robust human relationship.

I just skipped all the crap advice. What would I change. Well, I would have bought pins when I was 30. Prices were a lot better.