eg, let's simplify and assume spherical cows, no inflation and no ROI. If you save 50% of your income, 1 year of work is 1 year of retirement. If you save 25% of your income, 3 years of work is 1 year of retirement.
So you should probably read bogleheads, live below your means, and max out your 401k/403b/roth ira/etc with low-cost index funds. or just yolo it on stonks and hope for diamond hands.
1) Eliminate/Simplify/Lower all your "wants". You will be surprised as to how much you can save.
2) Focus only on your "needs" for existence i.e. what you actually need to live when you are 70.
3) Modify your lifestyle immediately; specifically Diet and Health in the light of the above two goals viz. proper work/life balance, proper diet, proper sleep, proper exercise. Health _is_ Wealth when it comes to old age since much of your retirement money will go to healthcare when you are older. Control/Plan-for/Manage this now.
4) Get your entire family to understand and buy-into the above.
Everything else is gravy.
Don’t get caught up trying to keep up with the joneses. Nobody who matters gives a shit what kind of car you drive.
If your company matches your 401k contribution, max that out. It’s free money. You’re leaving it on the table if you don’t take it.
Even if there’s no match, max your contribution. If you’re putting in 18k/yr into index funds you’ll look up one day and have a million bucks.
Save up a down payment and buy a house. Property ownership is the path to generational wealth.
You need retirement savings that will cover expenses over any government pension you might get. I assume you're in the US, so there's little chance of a company pension... Basically, save as much as you can while living a reasonable lifestyle. And the killer question is whether or not you have kids - which, usually, suggests a partner having similar decisions. DINKS have more financial flexibility but less populated lives.
In a way, you should "burn the candle at both ends" while younger. Deferring everything until later puts you at risk to not having the physical or mental means to do what you'd like. Or, not having the people you'd like to do them with. I guess you could say "don't waste time". You only get so much and it grows valuable as you age.
And store up memories when you're young. You'll spend them when you're old.
I was out looking again in 2024, I responded to a recruiter and had a job offer within two weeks.
I am still an IC and half my job as a staff consultant is pushing out code onto AWS, the other half is leading projects, supporting sales, talking to customers.
There's a survivor bias, you see the older techs that are employed and people think "oh, there's no problem." But people don't take into account all the other techs that could not continue their career because they could not get a job as they got older.
I see these folks all of the time at client companies.
On the other hand, if you are 50 years old and haven’t kept up with tech - yeah you’re going to struggle
I don't think it makes sense to say they're the exception. I'm also mid-40s and have no issues finding employment. Most of my friends are mid 40s/50s and also have no issues. The vast majority of them have switched into management, though. Myself and the other older engineers I know are staff+, though, which helps a lot. I can't imagine being this age as a senior engineer trying to fight an army of equally qualified people in their 20s (who are also having issues finding employment right now).
They live in second tier cities and retire at the same time everyone else retires.
If you are 40 years old and still competing with 20 something’s based on your ability to reverse a b tree on the whiteboard, you have made some poor life choices.
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...
Only way out is jackpot -- lottery, startup sale, AI slop millionaire.