> My point is that as you age, without kids, most peoples’ options for spending time is the same subset of things they could do in their late twenties and early thirties, except they will do those things worse as they age.
They wouldn't be limited to options that don't build. You can have children and build a family, but you can also choose to dedicate your resources to building a business, or a skill, or knowledge, or whatever. Doesn't matter that you lose energy as you age and make lesser contributions, because you're kind of transforming it into something more persistent that you value. That could be a family, but it doesn't have to be.
> Is travel at 50 really fundamentally different than travel at 30? Other than having a bit more money, my opinion is not really. In many ways, travel at 30 is better, even with less money.
Even with relation to travel, maybe you dream of having a deeper understanding of one or more cultures or pieces of history and each travel contributes a bit to that.
It seems like you think the point of traveling is just to enjoy the travel itself, a momentary pleasure, but I don't see the point of travel if you return in the same state as when you left. It's only when something changes, when a contribution to something was made, that a travel was worthwhile. I don't think that ability to contribute to something (interpersonal relations, business, knowledge, etc.) is all that much affected between being 30 and 50.