If you think love has passed you by, think again. There is no wrong time to try to find love, even if you think you’re past your prime. Dating over 50 could be the best time for you to find your perfect partner.
Dating over 50: Why now?
With age comes depth. Maturity and growth occur in time—who you are at 50 is not the same as who you were at 20. Dating over 50 often means people have more time and money to devote to a relationship. Without the biological clock ticking to have children right away or the crippling amount of college debt and mortgages, it can be easier to slow down and find the right partner.
The Good Men Project writes that by this stage in life, everyone has had time to be single, making it easier to take time to work on yourself before embarking on a new relationship. Being comfortable alone makes finding a partner even sweeter. Reader’s Digest also proves that having sex over 50 may actually be a better experience than at younger ages. More than 70 percent of men and women over the age of 60 enjoy their sex lives more than when they were 40. Dating over 50 is definitely desirable!
Tips for finding love
AARP provides a host of great resources, include tips on finding love! Their top tips include coming prepared with fun stories, asking insightful questions, and paying unique compliments. They even have their own blog section where users can post their personal experiences and advice. One user talks about his experience as a man living in a senior community where there are 10 times more single women than men. From his perspective, there is tough competition among women, so much so that men don’t feel the need to settle on just one partner.
Other commenters mention shifting relationship goals later in life. If having kids and starting a family are no longer options, a desirable partner may just be someone to have fun with. For this reason, meet-ups or community events are great places to meet older adults with common interests. One other commenter, a widow, advises that not everyone in the dating pool wants to get remarried. As with any stage of life, the dating process means different things to everyone.
Is online dating the best option?
According to dating website eHarmony, 40 percent of Americans use either a website or smartphone app to find love. In fact, there was a 6 percent increase in online daters aged 55-64 from 2013 to 2015. The stigma surrounding online dating decreases every year, just as the number of users increases. eHarmony also reports that on average there are slightly more male users than female; however, as age increases, the numbers slide more in favor of males. In fact, by age 48, men have twice as many opportunities for a connection than women. While that may seem like a scary fact for women, there are still more relationships made through online dating than at a bar or through friends combined. At this stage of life, online daters know what traits they are looking for in a partner and what traits are deal breakers, so they tend to be more forward and establish stronger relationships. Why not give it a try?
By: Diana Michel
Sources: eHarmony, AARP, Reader’s Digest, Good Men Project