They are losing their fucking minds.
“Middle age” has never been about being exactly 50% of the way through the average life span. It’s much less about “how much time you have left” and more about the point where you can’t realistically think of yourself as young anymore. The effects of age become impossible to ignore, compounding, and increasingly obvious.
It’s basically just your 40s-60s. Not the exact midpoint.
It’s better to do it later in life anyway that way you actually have some money to go mad with