Are you in the 25% or over tax bracket? If not then just saving in a taxable account is just as good IMO.
"consider the option of playing catchup in coming years." So I had no 401k available for over a decade, until I finally became self-employed and started a solo 401k. Now I can put away $53k/year, so my retirement accounts are quickly rising toward my taxable now to create a good tax diversity for retirement.
The key is to not spend money & inflate lifestyle. Whether you pay off your mortgage, save in retirement accounts, save in taxable accounts, etc, I've found that to make little difference over the short term.