There is no doubt this will be diferent from most of the previous responses. I am 47 now and can assuredly tell you all that age does not beget wisdom (people who are stupid at 25 are stupid at 45
) but it does give you perspective.
10 years ago, 1996, I was working at Bank of America after barely surviving financially the recession of 1990-1991. For you young guys, the economy went to hell and interest rates went up 2 points overnight when George Bush Jr. started the first Gulf War. It was the first 'televised' war and everyone sat at home for a week staring at their TV's. The Bank gig was good. Expanded my horizons after being a local homebuilder for 8 years. Made me realize what a bigger world was out there. I had been married 13 years and my daughters were 5 and 7.
5 years ago, 2001, the year of September 11th. I was getting ready to go to work when my wife called me upstairs to watch the TV and we watched together as the second plane flew into the Trade Center. My wife is from NYC and we watched in silence and cried for the people who we knew who worked downtown. My wife is a police officer at a large airport and we knew her job would never be the same. My daughters were 10 and 12 and Dad was getting ready to have them fitted with chastity belts.
I had left the Bank to go out on my own as a real estate developer and was struggling to get things going. My Dad's Parkinson's was getting pronounced and he was considering an operation to implant electrodes into his brain to stop the tremors. My brother was doing time for his 3rd DUI and my younger sister was having her second son. I mention these obscure things because this is what you young folks have to look forward to. Life gets complicated. Your parents are dealing with things you have no idea about. But that is good. Life is short. Live it up. We did. You came in with nothing, you go out with nothing.
Today. Life goes on. See my sig. I truly believe in what it says. My oldest daughter is graduating from HS in a month and is starting at the University of Florida this summer. We sent her to Antarctica in December for the trip of a lifetime and she went to Europe (Brussels, Paris, Geneva) on spring break. My youngest daughter just got her learner's permit, so I get to call my insurance agent to now have two teenagers on our car policy. Ouch.
5 years from now. Who knows. One daughter graduated from college. Maybe grad school. Another one in college. Thankfully we did the Florida prepaid college Plan way back when. Still married. Bigger boat. Maybe a million in the bank.
Hopefully my Dad will still be around. Thinking about you parent's mortality is sobering.
Ten years from now. Who really knows. More of the same. The longer you are around the more you realize how fleeting things really are. People you know, one day they are here, they next day they aren't. Kids grow up. You friends start looking as old as you do. Heard an interesting perspective the other day---Life moves at your age. When you are 16 life moves at 16 mph. Way too slow. When you are 60, life moves at 60 mph, way too fast. Young folks want things to go faster, older people want things to slow down.
Well, that's enough. Thanks for listening. Hopefully, it will inspire or at least enlighten you guys as to what's coming. BTW, I have this theory about global warming. Gas prices are going to go up enough to force alternate energy development and it will reverse the warming that I think is merely a cyclical weather pattern and all will be right with the world. Or not.
Be well all.