“I wish I had put more effort into maintaining friendships. All my social energy went into raising a family. Friendships from my 20s slowly evaporated. Now I have an amazing family, but I really wish I had a close buddy or two who shared my interests.”

"This is why I insist to my wife that we take her parents on a trip once a year. They owned a restaurant, so they were always working, and after she went to college/started working herself, her off days would rarely overlap with theirs. I tell her to use the time now while she has it because I wish I had the opportunity to do the same with mine."

"The years aren’t even the worst part. It’s the version of yourself you set aside to make room for someone who wasn’t paying the same emotional rent. That’s what takes the longest to get back."

"I'm 42. I started working out when I was 37 and found Pilates about two months ago. I now understand that I've been standing wrong for about 20 years and chronic back pain can be exercised away. I wish I had known this when I was 30."

"I wish I had put more effort into maintaining friendships. All my social energy went into raising a family. Friendships from my 20s slowly evaporated. Now I have an amazing family, but I really wish I had a close buddy or two who shared my interests."

"At my last job, they kept telling me, 'We'll put you up for consideration for promotion into Associate Engineer next time.'' Taking the risk and acting on my instincts that it wasn't going to happen was probably the best decision I ever made. I looked around and saw engineers who had been with the company for nearly a decade, all still waiting in line for their turn to move into an Associate title. I left and found a job with better entry pay than what I would have gotten by making Associate at the old place."

"It’s wild how much a difference even a few years earlier makes with compound interest."

Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.