Would you rather be young again or be rich?

OK, how about this one:

Would you like to go back to a certain moment in time, and make a different decision?

I can think of about 100 of those moments. I know exactly which one I'd start with, too.
 
easysurfer said:
I'd rather be young again. There isn't a day that goes by when I pause to think in about 20 years or so there's a good chance I may not be around anymore.
Click to expand...

Yep, I tease the kids about how most of the males on my dad's side of the family (I look just like him) are dead less than 15 years from the age I am now.

To be fair, dad made it another decade, though only by the skin of his teeth.
 
Pretty happy now. Have enough $. Don't really want to do it over.
 
I'd go for rich. Especially if I can trade half of the richness for a bit better health.
I've had a good life, accomplished most all of what I wanted to. It would be nice to have a bit more throw away money to spend on the grandkids.
 
ransil said:
reading replies looks like most are afraid to die.
Click to expand...
Yeah, maybe. But mostly I'm really curious how things would have turned out had I done or said something different at a few key turning points in my life. Something we can never know, unless that whole parallel universe thing turns out to be true, and we find a way to jump between them.
 
If the time machine sent me back, naked and afraid, to the year I was 18, as an 18 year old, with my current memories, and in the US, it would be a slam-dunk "yes." If society knew about the "drop in" policy it would be easy to get documentation, but if secret, then I'd need to do some kind of subterfuge, which I'd be willing to go through.

Same scenario, but arriving in a poor or totalitarian country, then "no", I would not go back. This is presuming I'd blend visually with the local population members, that would be a bridge too far.

Rather than a time travel scenario, say you walk through a portal and arrive in the current year and in the US as an 18 year old with current memories, but no assets. Given I'd have my current memories, then another slam-dunk "yes." Even if "drop ins" were secret and I'd need to wrestle with legitimacy, I could live at a friend's basement while working at a lax low skill employer. Being 18 was fun in the 70's and probably a little less fun in the 20's, but better than a dirt nap.

Walking through the door and coming out in 2025 at a random place as a random local 18 year old with my current memories would be a "no." It would be much more difficult to make my way back to my network and much more difficult to convince them I was me. Finding yourself in a random place in the world, without means, and otherwise indistinguishable from the masses, except for the memories, seems like a form of torture; you certainly have wisdom, but that probably wouldn't be enough.
 
The last few years, not having the pursuit of money running my life, have been great. I worked 80-100 hours per week during residency and 60 hours per week including on call for much of my career. I don't think I would choose a different career, but maybe a different specialty, which could have made a huge lifestyle difference. I think I'll take the money. I'm pretty healthy at 65; healthier than I was 5-10 years ago while working.
 
My response looking at the thread title happened to be matching with a most of your responses! That is: I wouldn't change a thing. Sure, I have regrets about a few things in life but reversing those may have cascading effects on a lot of other good things in my life that has happened so far. So there, I said it. I am happy with the things as exactly as they are, money and otherwise.
 
Rich!!! I don't think I would have done much different in life.
 
I don't want to do it all over again, even if I had the knowledge I have today. I have enough money for the life I want to live, but if it's a binary choice, I'll take the money.

But if I could do any 24 months over again, I'd jump on that. And do that solely for the fun, not changing anything. The years when I was 19-20 were probably the most educational and interesting years of my life, and didn't have the stress, drama, and trauma that happens to everyone.
 
I have a much less stressful life than I did when I was younger. A big part of that is not really worrying about the future since I know I don't have that much future to worry about. That's a gift I don't think I'd want to give up.
 
ransil said:
reading replies looks like most are afraid to die.
Click to expand...
Uh, yeah. Death never seems like that fun of a time.

I have a family member who is very religious. Terrible person but a servant of the Lord, in his eyes. He knows there is eternal paradise waiting for him, yet he is petrified of death, getting sick and aging. Isn't it ironic, don't you think.
 
Last edited:
I don't think it's ironic at all. He knows what his future in heaven will be but he doesn't know what his last days on earth will be. And he doesn't want to leave those behind that he loves. Perfectly logical in my opinion.
I'm 70 and at this point in my life my biggest regrets will be that I may not see my grandkids marry and have kids.
 
The question in the title of the thread is "Would you rather be young again or be rich?"

The example in the original post was: "I think I would rather be young again and make different choices."

Seems like two different questions. Also, the question of whether or not you retain your current knowledge if you opt to become young again is a gigantic factor.

GrayHare brought up quantum uncertainty. If you decide to be young again and make different choices, how do you know you will end up where you are now? For example, each decision you make as a 21 year old could have cascading, domino effects on the outcome of your life.

Do you want a different spouse, different children, different grandchildren, different friends? A different house, different job, retirement?

How do you know you will meet your spouse or significant other if you start over? You want to just chuck that away to be a 21 year old again?

I'll stay where I'm at, thank you very much.
 
Qs Laptop said:
The question in the title of the thread is "Would you rather be young again or be rich?"

The example in the original post was: "I think I would rather be young again and make different choices."

Seems like two different questions. Also, the question of whether or not you retain your current knowledge if you opt to become young again is a gigantic factor.

GrayHare brought up quantum uncertainty. If you decide to be young again and make different choices, how do you know you will end up where you are now? For example, each decision you make as a 21 year old could have cascading, domino effects on the outcome of your life.

Do you want a different spouse, different children, different grandchildren, different friends? A different house, different job, retirement?

How do you know you will meet your spouse or significant other if you start over? You want to just chuck that away to be a 21 year old again?

I'll stay where I'm at, thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Good thoughts and we are all different in what we think of our current situation. My DW passed two years ago and my only living daughter had no kids, so no grands in my future to watch grow and raise families. Oh well, at least I have one daughter left to love.

I mentioned earlier that the original love of my life was a gal I left behind (Susie) in the summer of 1964 when Uncle Sam decided I needed a vacation (of sorts) in a foreign country. She was not there when I returned (expected). I sometimes wonder what my life would have ended up being like if I had the luck to marry her and go from there. I visualize I would have still been working in the local iron foundry making manhole covers to pay for the eight kids we would have had!
 
aja8888 said:
I mentioned earlier that the original love of my life was a gal I left behind (Susie) in the summer of 1964 when Uncle Sam decided I needed a vacation (of sorts) in a foreign country. She was not there when I returned (expected). I sometimes wonder what my life would have ended up being like if I had the luck to marry her and go from there. I visualize I would have still been working in the local iron foundry making manhole covers to pay for the eight kids we would have had!
Click to expand...

Hmmm...I also had "the one that got away." I had a ginormous crush on a woman I worked with when I was 22 years old (1980). I knew she was dating someone at the time but I asked her out anyway, and of course she said no. I was devastated.

About 5 years ago, on a whim I decided to look her up. I discovered she died of cancer in 2015. This brought on a flood of thoughts about how I would have handled the situation of having married her, had kids with her, and then the tragedy of her dying in her 50's. It was tough to think about, and I realized maybe it was for the best that we never dated.
 
CaptTom said:
OK, how about this one:

Would you like to go back to a certain moment in time, and make a different decision?

I can think of about 100 of those moments. I know exactly which one I'd start with, too.
Click to expand...
In that case, yes, absolutely. I can think of several pivotal instances, mostly in my late 30s and early 40s (less so, in teens or 20s), where quick and easy revisions of choices, of things that I said or wrote, of forms that I filled-out a certain way, would have made a vast - nay, incalculable! - difference in present outcomes.

The mistakes that I made in my youth were either inevitable (an alternative-me would still have made them), reversible, or minor. The mistakes made at the threshold of middle-age, were vastly more serious, and are irreversible.
 
GrayHare said:
There'd be school subjects you've forgotten. That Differential Equations course would sound like gibberish, well, even more gibberish.
Click to expand...

It seems like most of us answered the OP's question as if the "self" we perceive today was just housed in a younger body (whether that body is in the past or current times, in the US or somewhere else are different aspects of the question, ignored here).

When answering the OP's question, one can't help but look at things like re-learning diffyques through current eyes and decide it's something that doesn't seem like fun to repeat. That, and hundreds of other hoops you'd have to jump through to re-establish yourself as a "productive member of society." This thinking probably contributed many "no" answers. In short, maybe it's a sentiment like "That sounds like a lot of work, and I'm tired."

That brought me to thinking about how an old "self" would feel with a young brain. Does wisdom require an old brain? Does spontaneity naturally arise more easily from a young brain? These questions probably can't be answered, but science does suggest that neuroplasticity decreases as we age. If our "self" was transported to a young brain, we might look at the hoops with energy and vigor; a challenge to be negotiated in a skillful manner, having fun along the way.

Another thing that probably contributed to "no" answers is the assessment of how many "good years" you have left. If you've got means now, and decades to enjoy it, that's a reason not to roll the dice on a new beginning. But if you're staring into the abyss, you really don't have much to loose by pressing the reset button. But because of the reasons above (...I'm tired), there are probably plenty of people that just wouldn't press the button, even if they were staring death in the face, and even if they didn't believe in an afterlife. It certainly would be tragic to press the reset button only to realize that the same defeated attitude came with you into the 18 year old body. But I think that ones current physiology is driving the attitude. So the self in the young body would be "you", but an envigorated "you" and would energetically embrace the new life, but this round, with more wisdom.
 
ponyboy said:
Uh, yeah. Death never seems like that fun of a time.

I have a family member who is very religious. Terrible person but a servant of the Lord, in his eyes. He knows there is eternal paradise waiting for him, yet he is petrified of death, getting sick and aging. Isn't it ironic, don't you think.
Click to expand...
Perhaps because I am "only" 64, but I don't think about when I will die or worried about it.
 
At 66, I am in good health, everything functions, and my wife is still sexy to me - so SHOW ME THE MONEY! 😂
 
sengsational said:
It seems like most of us answered the OP's question as if the "self" we perceive today was just housed in a younger body (whether that body is in the past or current times, in the US or somewhere else are different aspects of the question, ignored here).

Another thing that probably contributed to "no" answers is the assessment of how many "good years" you have left. If you've got means now, and decades to enjoy it, that's a reason not to roll the dice on a new beginning. ...
Click to expand...
Excellent point! If I were to return to the 20-year-old version of myself, I'd lose the wisdom (such as it is) or experience. A lot of respondents are assuming that they're retain current knowledge, such as buying Microsoft in the 1980s and Dell in the 1990s. Sure, knowledge of the then-future would be fantastic. But to relive life as the dumb and ignorant me? No thanks!

And yes, even though this is a FIRE community, the more frequent respondents tend to be older. I'm in my early 50s, about a decade away from Social Security eligibility. Some of you folks are old enough to be my parents! So of course, attitudes towards youth and senescence, towards mortality and remaining opportunities, are going to be different.
 
Dtail said:
Perhaps because I am "only" 64, but I don't think about when I will die or worried about it.
Click to expand...
That age always reminds me of the Beatles song, and how they thought it was very old.

1737421457780.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

folivier
Taking granddaughter to Europe?
Chuckanut
Chuckanut
R
Gen Z is less likely to have a driver's license
2 3
kgtest
K
bbqcoder
What allocation would you use for Roth vs non-Roth?
2
Al18
A
T
empty nester
YetiXing
YetiXing
A
Day of Colonoscopy Prep?
2 3 4
pacergal
P

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom