Dumbest thing I did WRT retirement was waiting 3 years before starting to save, although my company was offering up to 4% matching funds. If I had started saving when I started working I’d be able to retire early, or have several hundred thousand dollars more worth of accrued interest.
I learned how to save in the military with an E3/4 pay a newborn and a stay at home wife who took care of him. My last year in the shipyard in Portland Oregon I’d collect cans on the ship for the 5 cent deposit money. Afterward I worked 2 jobs for 22 years with the same stay at home mom caring for the 4 kids. I retired at 46 and have been retired for 18 years. We always lived frugal and way below our means. My assets have actually grown because I still live the same way. I’ve never had debt always paid cash. I have 2 houses of which one I am rehabbing to sell after all this crap calms down, and 16 acres of separate woodlands down the road. My family says I should collect SS early but fact is at this time I don’t need it. I will file at 65 when I sign up for medicare only for the medicare plan to be paid by SS and they’ll send me the balance of which will go into more savings.