I made peace with the fact that I'm never going to retire, and someone will find me deceased at my keyboard at work on a Monday, after perishing while working late on Friday.

I realized this a few years ago when I noticed that my wages were not keeping up with inflation, and I left the job I was at to find a better wage. I've struggled to get much more than I was in 2013/2014.

Combine that with all the debt I carry as a matter of requiring things for life, like a working vehicle.... And me trying to repay that with any spare change laying around and getting nowhere, and not saving anything because I'm "trying to pay off my debts first" like an idiot.... I'm now 42, with a $600k+ mortgage, and carrying upwards of $35k of other debts, on a treadmill that will never end, paying interest and never making meaningful progress on any principal.

By the time I get around to clearing my current debts (not even including the mortgage), and start to save to retire, my government pension plan will kick in, and I'll be getting two paychecks. One from work, one from my "retirement" which hasn't happened and won't happen. Only after I'm getting two paychecks, do I think I have any chance in hell of paying all this shit off.

Right now, I'll make some progress then shit will happen and drive me right back to where I started. Every fucking time.

I will consider retiring when my 25 year mortgage is paid off, when I'm 67, and my other debts are cleared, so that I can actually survive on the government pension I'll get by then.... Until then, I get to enrich shareholders through my generous donations to their wealth via interest, and dividends.