What age constitutes "old"?

[Don Corleone]

I hit the big four-oh this year, and came face-to-face with the realization that there are probably fewer years ahead than there are behind. But that doesn't make me feel old, per se. I think the other posters are right, you're asking two questions:

1. When do you stop feeling like a youngster?
2. When do you start to feel old?

I stopped feeling like a youngster when I took my first full-time job that didn't end when school starts. And I only feel old when I've been up all night with sick kids, as I was last night. But that's a temporary thing.

Be very careful with thoughts like that... it leads to improper financial planning into retirement. I'm 2 years younger than you and I expect I'll probably see 80, but my financial plans are solid out to 90, assuming I retire at 68.

I think old is 5 years younger than whatever age I'm currently at. Honestly, I think questions like these are only relevant when you're young. Maybe I could define the end of youth then better than the beginning of old. I'll say the end of youth is when you stop caring about getting old.

Given some of the 50 year olds I see running around with sports cars and 20-something wives, trying to fake being 20-something themselves, I'm not so certain my definition of youth is something to be embraced however.

The older I get, the more existential I get, and the more I appreciate 'right now'. And I agree with Insane Apache... the older I get the less I know. Amazingly, the older I get, the WISER my father gets, as each and every day, something he said that I was convinced he was wrong on is yet again proven to be correct.