I got married when I was twenty one and in less than a year I enlisted in the USAF. The Air Force taught me to be a telecommunications troubleshooter, and I was hired in the wide open field in the civilian world.
When I was laid-off at the age of 61, Verizon stamped me retired and I rolled over my one lump sum grandfathered pension into my 401k account and then transferred it to private management. I had two years notice unofficially of my eventual layoff, so when it happened, my wife had the house note paid, the car loans were paid and every credit card was a zero balance. My wife still cried about the layoff even though she knew we were OK.
I didn't want to take my SS benefit and get harshly penalized for applying early. So we lived a few years on my healthy severance package that was in the bank.
In forty years I never asked for a raise but almost always got them. The two times I felt I was not treated well I was employed with the competition within a week and under better circumstances.
Looking back, it seems like I just drifted through it but I was a company man all the way. Twice I was the last man employed in large offices, up to one hundred people, Supervisors, Managers and Senior Managers were let go, where I shut off the lights and was the last man out the door, to report for work at another location.
You handle your money with great prudence and long term planning.
A lot could learn from controlling the impulse to spend sort of like that mountain climber: “Because it is there!”