Do/did any of you feel not good about turning 40?

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I turned 40 last week and I don't feel good about not having a independent paid job and I've never been to college or university. Do/did any of you feel not good about turning 40?

I'm a few months away from not feeling good about turning 40.

I’m turning 40 in 3 months. I’m already not feeling good about it.

I figure by T minus three months I'll be not feeling so good about it.

Especially if you're still single, then that makes you feel doubly bad about turning 40.

55 has been the hardest. Like when a car reaches certain number of miles and things start breaking down.

I have a few years until hitting 40.

I am not really looking forward to that.

It is an undeniable 'older' age.

I don't feel good about any birthdays. 40 was a bit more annoying being a "milestone," age. Annual reminder of the things I haven't done/continue to procrastinate on vs. complete and then work towards other goals. Frustrating. 41 now, over being 40 w/e. Trying not to dwell on age/time much and just focus on actually doing things I know I need to do - which is very challenging.

That was 10 years ago, back when the world was very slightly less horrible. Now I really have nothing to forwards to and I will grow weaker and more helpless to do anything about this repulsive world.

I didnt feel good when I turned 30 (I'm about to be 34)

I realized my mom is getting older and sicker and I worry every day about what will happen to me and my brother if she can no longer take care of us, because we literally have nobody who gives a damn about us...

I also started getting health issues of my own due to years of obesity and unhealthy eating habits.

And I've overheard people whisper behind my back that I look like a "30 year old kid". And parents with young children who don't know me often tend to treat me like some kind of creep because of this. I no longer feel comfortable being around children because of this.

I felt somewhat okay about turning 40 since I had some ways planned to celebrate it (friends, trips, etc), but then the pandemic shot all those plans to hell. I really couldn't do anything about it, so I just got by day-by-day which is not too much of a change to how a regularly live my life.

I certainly didn't feel good about it. Does anybody? I suppose it's one of those milestones that tell us we're not really young any more. In my case it didn't send me off the rails in terms of functioning. Mostly it was about the realisation of my own mortality, something I'd never faced before. Somebody described the "midlife crisis" as the process of making a new deal with death. Being older is still a morbid idea so I try not to dwell on it.

I never got upset about not having achieved any miracles, probably because I nearly always managed to enjoy at least part of every day, and I can look back and see that I solved a lot of problems over the years. I'm not ambitious for the standard kind of achievement. I just pursued goals for which age isn't much of a concern, such as a good music recording or performance and a life of reasonable contentment. Of course hindsight can allow us to notice mistakes we made in the past and how we "wasted" our potential, but I don't worry much about maximising potential, even though it's a buzz phrase that we're all expected to worship.

Turning 40 was nothing compared to turning 65.  Sudenly, I'm retiring, and trying to deal with Medicare, Social Security, my 401k, and what to pack for my overseas move . . .

I hate being in my 40s. Very few people in my age group have the same interests as me, and I am considered a "dirty old man" by potential partners.

I haven't worked in years, because the very few jobs in my field (and it's always been a small field) are contract, nothing permanent. And because of that and my age, I am completely unqualified to do anything else, even though I got a ChatGPT certification and have studied many AI applications. I'll never be able to save up for retirement, even if I got a high paying job in Houston. In NYC, San Francisco, or Seattle, I would never be able to retire, even *with* a 6-figure salary.

Plus I am trapped in a place where I am surrounded by Trump-supporting rednecks.

I was a tad luckier - UK pension paperwork not such a nightmare, though not exactly trivial, and I was mainly focussed on the beauty of getting my freedom back. The only sad thing about being 65 I remember was that I couldn't crow to myself any more about having one up on colleagues of my age who hadn't escaped from their jobs. And that didn't matter much.

I don't remember turning 40.
It was during my trauma time so it wasn't even a thing.

The only age that made me feel old was 26.
My mother-in-law at the time said that was 'past the hump'.
I think she was right.

It's all kind of the same after 25 when you know you're a grown-up.