Perry,
Don't sell yourself short on being able to inspect your own plane.
Get an A&P with actual experience (not just a kid with a fresh rating).
He needs to be willing to teach you, or you're wasting your money and time.
Some items like hoses and belts wear out due to condition as well as age, but both are inspectable. Heat embrittlement and oxidation are easily noticed, just like wear.
It's best to have manufacturing dates and installation dates for soft parts like hoses, tires, motor mounts, SCAT tube etc so you don't end up with 20 year old fuel hoses close to the exhaust pipe, but lacking that, you can still get good life cycle cost control by using judgement, and some help from your friends in the RV community.
The idea is to get your money's worth out of each part, but not to run it into a dangerous condition.
Of course, if you are owning a show plane, then all bets are off, just throw money at it
The check list brings each component to your attention, that's the important part. Once you know what to look at, it's not too hard to figure out if it needs work or is good to go another year.