Would you rather be young again or be rich?

Never want to go back, any decision I made differently would affect every aspect of my life now!
We definitely are not rich, but we have what we need and our wants are not really big.
Life seems to be going by a lot faster now, so would I want to be a bit younger, sure. But do I want to live life over again? No thanks. I am comfortable where I am at.
 
Same me, just suddenly say, back in my 20's - with all my experience and stuff? Ok sure, because it would be easy to become rich doing that - just buy all the Apple and Google I can get my hands on.
 
I'm fine with things the way they are. I wouldn't want to be young again, knowing what I know now. It would take all the fun out of it! There's a lot of enjoyment in being young, enthusiastic, wide-eyed and eager. Wisdom is for the old.

I had a good youth, and I'm having good senior years.
 
The audience here skews older and wealthier, so I suspect most would choose to be young again.

We'd go back in time? Do we get to pick the age? Suddenly being, say, 21 again but equipped with knowledge from a much later age would be challenging. For one thing, your cohorts from that time would suddenly seem immature. There'd be school subjects you've forgotten. That Differential Equations course would sound like gibberish, well, even more gibberish.

So, it might be better to pick an age of your first "real" j*b. OK, then you'd reach for your smartphone to look up an answer, and discover you have to travel to a library to use the card catalog to find information.

Quantum uncertainty means the future you remember will not be the one that transpires again. Buying Microsoft, Apple, etc. stock seems like a lock to FIRE, except your knowledge of the future will leak out, perhaps causing some other company to be the one to create the killer product. Predictions are hard, especially about the future.
 
With my accumulated knowledge and wisdom (faulty as it surely is), youth! I would not want to relive my youth without the information my experiences have given me today so if it's a complete factory reset give me the money. I still make plenty of bad decisions but fewer than in the past and I don't wish to redo and relearn those lessons.
 
I picked younger in my 20's. If that happens again,

I will marry Suzi rather than going in the military and leaving her behind. More than likely, I would have had 8 kids with her and still be working in a foundry making manhole covers at my current age. But it would have been OK and I probably would have been happier.
 
When I think about all the "bullets" I miraculously dodged......

I'll take my current past, the money, DW and where I am right now. .

Friends always say that I've led a charmed life, so why mess with that?
 
Last edited:
This is a quote by Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony Corporation. I think I would rather be young again and make different choices.
Fortunately, I don't have many huge regrets. Have two wonderful adult boys, but I think all of us parents wish we had done one thing or another differently.
 
Well if I could still have my family and my 19 year old healthy body, I wouldn't mind that.
 
If the assumption is that being young with the current knowledge? Then easy choice, be young and make smarter choices and less school of hard knocks. I would end up better than I am now, and certainly would have a different path in life.

If the assumption is being young and same knowledge as I had at that age? Then I would choose be rich now. No real regrets in my life, but these retirement years are some of the best of my life. Let the good times roll with more disposable income.
 
Tough one...

I think I'd be happy just going back to relive the past 15 years (to my late 50's) in time "if" I could know then, what I know now, and able to act upon that knowledge.

But just to be young (20's) and dumb, and work my way through life again, no thank you. I made a few key decisions along the way that made all the difference in my life, and I'm not sure I'd make all those same decisions again. Just a bit of luck I think.
 
Last edited:
Interesting question. Since it is fantasyland, I would choose much richer but with the caveat of 30 more very healthy years.
 
I’ll stick with what I am.


1737314195685.gif
 
I have enough so no wish for being rich (richer.)

No interest in "going back" (being younger) and doing it all over again. I WOULD like a younger (more healthy) body if the "wish fairy" could do that for me.
 
You couldn't pay me enough to live it over again so I'm sure not going to do it over without the money.
 
I am living my best life now, far beyond what I could have ever imagined. I love the peace and joy that have come with getting older. I have discovered many hobbies that I’ve enjoyed and have the time to make and spend time with good friends. I do not wish to go back to my youth when I was anxious and stressed all the time, working my ass off to build a future. No thank you!
 
The exact opposite! I'd rather be older... much older; even if that means being poorer.
 
I have no regrets in life, I don't want to be any richer. If I were to be younger, I would want to know more about my great- and grandparents family tree, and to spend more time with my Dad, who died of AML at an early 70.
 
If I had to live my whole life over then, no. If I could pick the age, then yes I probably would. I would have taken that 'left turn in Albuquerque'. We all have those pivotal moments in life that change our direction forever.
 
Back
Top Bottom