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The choice of age was simply coincidence or '50' means something different for hobbits than it does for us Big Folk.
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At the risk of "pushing it," I might also add that Frodo would have been 49 when he set out if he had gone when Gandalf was hoping he would!
Frodo himself saw the significance of the big 5-0 and waited until the very day to set out. This would suggest that the significance is seen by Frodo himself, and he is emulating Bilbo
consciously in this aspect. As for Tolkien's intent in holding the hobbits at bay until 50, it might be interesting to speculate on how an actual Tolkien-written younger Frodo would have fared on his quest. To that end, we could perhaps hand Pippin the Ring and say, "go to it, kid!" I'll have to think on it more, and determine if this posited "younger Frodo" would have acted like Elijah Wood's "younger Frodo" did or not. One does wonder how Frodo came to be thought of by Gandalf as "the best hobbit in the Shire," and whether it was by virtue of his lessons learned through his extra time to gain maturity or whether he already had this quality in him and would have fared as well at 33 or so. For that matter, would Bilbo have done so well at 33, and would he have had the insight to show Gollum the all-important mercy that he did? An interesting speculation indeed!
Cheers!
Lyta