Maybe 50 is the new 40. Or maybe 50 is the new 30. Or maybe 50 is just fine as 50. If you’ve passed that milestone, you know there’s something magical about that age. You’re in the prime now, so enjoy it. Here are 50 reasons life really starts at 50.

Whether it’s opera or soccer or kale chips or the latest Marvel movie, you’re at the age where you can embrace your tastes, critics be darned. You’re not trying to impress anyone except yourself.

Or maybe you don’t want to sit through that Avengers movie or choke down that bag of (ack!) kale chips. Being 50 is understanding the power of saying “no.”

This is your chance to finally take those dance lessons or learn how to play a few songs on the piano. Treat yourself to something new.

As your teens head into adulthood, your relationship with them enters a glorious new phase. They aren’t your babies any more. You can see that all your hard work as a parent is paying off.

This will obviously come quicker for some of you. But 50 is when many parents can start thinking about grandkids. It’s all of the fun of babies, with very little of the responsibility. And your kids, who thought you knew nothing when they were teenagers, are suddenly eager for your wisdom.

It’s still a ways off, but what once seemed like an impossible goal, now is starting to seem attainable. And good news if you’re behind on your retirement plans: It’s not too late to get things moving.

Embrace the AARP card. Use those discounts at restaurants, stores, movies and more.

OK, you probably won’t follow up on this one. But if golf is your game, the Senior Tour is now an (ever so slight) possibility for you.

You’ve lived through enough ups and downs to focus on what really matters.

Friends from high school, college, that first job. Not to mention your siblings, cousins and other extended family. (And your spouse’s family, too.) They knew you way back when. And that is a wonderful gift.

Remember those little annoyances that really used to get to you? Hopefully you don’t. This is the age for letting those things go.

At work and at home, you can trust in your choices and decisions. You’ve been here before.

This is an underrated benefit for 50-something couples. Pregnancy scares are a thing of the past.

Look back with joy and pride at what you’ve enjoyed and what you’ve accomplished so far.

You have a perspective that you didn’t have in your 20s.

Kids, career, home, friends. Your life at 50 can be so full of joy.

Life if better when you can laugh at yourself. What was mortifying at 25 can be fun at 50.

You’ve learned that there’s no point in beating yourself up over your shortcomings. Celebrate your accomplishments.

Too tired to stay out until dawn? That’s just fine at 50.

Forgiveness and acceptance are powerful tools for any 50-year-old.

You’ve been down the rocky roads before. You know you’ll weather this storm, too.

Hopefully this one applies to you. 50 is time to accept and appreciate who you are, inside and out.

Some childhood dreams have fallen by the wayside. Hopefully, they’ve been replaced by a bright reality.

Your memories are brightened by all you’ve seen and experienced. If you still have a long travel to-do list, now is the time to get moving.

Keep taking care of your body and it will keep taking care of you.

Now’s the time when you can start getting away with that red-sequined hat.

Hopefully this is a lifelong truth for you. Don’t stop moving!

Here’s hoping you’ve reached a point in your career when you can look back and appreciate your accomplishments. The fact that you’ve made it this far is cause for celebration.

Your knees are not what they used to be, but you can still get out there on Saturday morning.

You don’t have to do an Ironman. But the workout variety can do wonders for you.

No time like the present. If this has always been on your wish list, now’s the time to do it.

Money can’t buy happiness, but it could pay for that Hawaiian vacation. Hopefully you’ve got money to spare to pamper yourself.

The kids are a bit more self-sufficient at this stage. Now it’s time to think about you.

Here are some words of wisdom from people who have seen the other side of 50.

“You take all the experience and judgment of men over 50 out of the world and there wouldn’t be enough left to run it.”

“I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming… suddenly you find – at the age of 50, say – that a whole new life has opened before you.”

“At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.”

“The face you have at age 25 is the face God gave you, but the face you have after 50 is the face you earned.”

“Looking 50 is great – if you’re 60.”

“The heyday of a woman’s life is the shady side of 50.”

 “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

 “The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.”   

 “The only time you really live fully is from 30 to 60. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.”

“Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.”

“40 is the old age of youth; 50 is the youth of old age.”

“Middle age is when you're faced with two temptations and you choose the one that will get you home by nine o'clock.”

 “Self-acceptance has been a blessed by-product of middle age.”

 “You can be gorgeous at 30, charming at 40, and irresistible for the rest of your life.”

“50 years: here’s a time when you have to separate yourself from what other people expect of you, and do what you love. Because if you find yourself 50 years old and you aren’t doing what you love, then what’s the point?”

“The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it.”