I found making it from 40 to 76 was likely the most difficult thing I had to personally do in my life

Note: The worst thing I have ever had to do was to deal with my mother when she got senile dementia. Surviving that for me was touch and go. But, in the end 'Life is for the living" and Senile dementia and Alzheimers are fatal diseases. There is no coming back. end note.

However, generally speaking I realized that I had done ALL the things I wanted most to do in my life by age 37. So, wondering why I should live on  (at least for myself) was a real question for me.

If you look at most centuries past before 1900 you were very very lucky to live to 40 and then if you were really really lucky you were wealthy enough to live to be 60, 70, 80. 90 or 100. I was lucky enough to have two great Grandparents one who was born in the 1840s and died in the 1940s so very close to 100 in Kansas. His wife lived until 1952 when she was 105 years old in Kansas too.

The point here is the biggest obstacle to living a long time is really psychological from my point of view. If you don't expect to live a long time then you won't.

If you smoke and drink and take drugs you might be gone by 27 like a friend of my sons was.

However, if you eat organic foods and don't drink or take drugs  then you might be alive at 76.

HOwever, I have had relatives who were functional alcoholics (only drinking at night to sleep and to calm themselves down) and they lived until 90 or more too and this particular relative had about 8 girlfriends when he passed away at 90 too so quite a character.

The point I"m making here is that if you aren't financially prepared for old age then how are you ever going to get there.

It's true Medicare is wonderful and very likely will keep most of you alive to 90 to 100 years of age now given ongoing medical advances.

But, just remember in 1900 life expectancy was 60 on average and most people were dead by 40 in 1900.

Even in the 1950s most people had no teeth or very few teeth left and wore dental plates instead from age 40 onwards because implants weren't done yet that I know of. So, in the 1950s seeing toothless or nearly toothless people was normal if you were 40 or above and below that for people who had had many fistfights where teeth had been knocked out.

So yes, for me other than dealing with the senile dementia of my mother trying to stay alive from 40 to 76 was likely the hardest thing I have ever done.

all you can really do is to live on moment, one day at a time. In some ways life is very iffy over 40 always. And the first to die are usually people who pretend that they are still 25 and are 40 to 60. They die like flies and you will watch this too if you get to be that old.