I'm 42 and ride a hard tail; the one caveat is my hard tail isn't a stock bike. I own a 2013 Yeti Big Top with X0 components and a X-Fusion fork (34 stanchions). The things I've learned from riding a HS frame is that I want a full squishy because I have become confident in my riding and am reaching out into some bigger things for my riding.
My advise is to avoid a FS and let the bulk of your funds go toward a quality hard tail. You can get a lot of bang for your buck out of a Trek Stache or Surly Krampus. The catch is that you're going to want a suspension fork and that's where you'll want to make sure you get quality over a lot of other things. A lot of people are going to tell you a 2x10 is a good thing, and I'm not saying they're wrong. The catch with a 1-xx setup is that you're going to be limited - sorta. The gear range is very wide on the new 1x setups. You'll probably find that you get more lower end range out of it and that's where you'll find yourself offroad anyhow. When you get strong like ox and can ride with speed, maybe you'll find the 1-xx limiting, but early on, it'll be perfectly fine. Hell, I'd wager you'll never out-ride any decent gear range on a 1x. Go to your LBS and look for 1-2 year old stock that's been reduced to save a few pesos and avoid a lot of the hyped up crap. Carbon isn't going to be your friend until you're very comfortable with riding on rocks in our neck of the woods. Stick with aluminum or steel and instead focus on a solid wheelset, good midlevel components (x7-x9) and solid breaking. Dropper posts and all the other stuff is nice, but not something I would worry about until you've found your comfort zone and riding style that makes you feel confident.
tl;dr: by a 1-2 year old stock hard tail with midlevel components and good wheels with enough growth in the bike to learn, but not make you feel like the bike is mocking you.