In your 40s, life is another world in comparison to your 30s. When you arrive to your fabulous 40s you will know it. No matter how much you’ve prepared, there is nothing like the awaking you will receive. Your sleep habits change, you eat differently, a late night is 9pm, and your taste in music changes, if it hadn’t already. To be generous and forth coming, there are 20 simple things you can do in your 40s that will add value to your days.

• Review your investments on a quarterly basis to ensure you are continuously making the right decision to ready for retirement.
• If you haven’t done a double check on number 1, you might want to get to it. If you are not sure that you’ve made the right investments, then consult a reputable financial adviser. Readying for retirement is not an easy experience and not everyone is a finance wiz.
• The idea of preventive care is brilliant. By the time you get to your 40s, your health should be carried out on the offense and not the defense. Offense is ensuring you are properly managing you preventive care.
• Take vacations and short trips as much as possible. Work is demanding in your 40s, unless you’ve retired. There is value in nice beach towns and mountain towns.
• Enjoy date nights with a person of interest or friends. You will probably date less often, but don’t let it completely fade away. Food is still good and conversation is always interesting.
• If you enjoy wine or fine liquor, keep some close. A night cap every now and them will help you sleep well and it taste good.
• Music is a must. If you have not given any thought to a good playlist in a couple of years, you might want to reestablish it. Music on your drive into work, drive home, or getting dress in the mornings can add some pep in your step.

• If you have nieces and/or nephews, build a relationship with them. Offer some meaningful advice, because they are listening even when you think they are not. Provide guidance and teach them when those moments arise. If those moments don’t arrive, purposely create them, by reaching out and checking in on them. Family is family, blood is blood, and we don’t get to choose our DNA.
• Accept what’s true, embrace the hurt, learn to heal, recover with regret and get up…stand tall.
• Read the reports on sugar and understand why you must minimize or reduce your sugar intake. There is so much written on the effects of sugar and none of the reports are good. Minimizing it in your diet can make a lot of difference in your well being. You are not getting any younger, but you can age gracefully.

• Don’t let sex slip away from you. Still enjoy a healthy and safe sex life. You are alive, well, and wiser…so enjoy your sexual appetite.
• Embrace the arts (e.g., writers, stage play performers, composers of tedious instrumental music). Familiarize yourself with good writers of old and even those that write for television or motion pictures. Reading and writing in more than 120 characters will continue to influence your vocabulary and stretch your mind.
• Travel by train, because it is relaxing and one of the most under experienced acts.

• Forgive and forget, but don’t revisit the same bullshit that caused you pain. Learn to bury dead relationships and styles that belong to those that are 20 something.
• Talk about men to your adult nieces and men talk about women to your adult nephews. Offer dating advice.
• Drink lots of water, that means 64 ounces or MORE! Go with more.
• Buy underwear and socks often. In fact, buy them every quarter.
• Remember to laugh, so you don’t grow into a grumpy and complaining old man or woman.

• Add a daily salad to your diet. You waist will think you for it.
• Buy a Fitbit to remind you to get up and get your steps in each hour. Walking to stay mobile is important as you age. Again, your body will thank you. Daily steps help to ensure you work on your resting heart rate, but it also reminds you to get a form of daily exercise.