I followed Dave Ramsey’s advice and I’m 56, debt free and retired! However, I started working at 15 and was self-supporting at 17. I never looked back. (I had a loving family; I wasn’t trying to ‘escape’ anything.)
It can be done - you just have to plan the work and work the plan, though I realize that concept is lost on many younger than myself. ;)
Congratulations! My wife and I retired in our mid-fifties, debt free. We also started working in our early teens and were self-supporting out of high school.
You might laugh at whose advice I listened to. In the movie "Saturday Night Fever", John Travolta's boss in the paint store. When Travolta said "F*** the future!", the boss said "No, the future F***'s you (if you don't plan for it)". My wife and I planned to retire early, started to work the plan in our twenties.