I'll finish my MA next year and, if accepted, will be 39 when I start the Ph.D. I've worked in several fields, owned two business, have three kids and a great spouse. It's a good time for me to start because my professional life has taught me a lot about myself and how I work best, I won't have to be a broke grad student, and my kids are getting to be old enough that they can be more self-sufficient. The hard parts are that my kids and spouse still do deserve attention from me so I can't just bury myself in the library for days on end. Picking up and moving across the country is a bigger deal when I'm selling a house, selling a business, taking the kids out of school, and forcing my spouse to rearrange his worklife completely. It's different for everyone, I guess. I wouldn't have been ready when I was 21, probably not even when I was 31.
