I retired a few years ago. I could have done it years earlier, but it took a while to believe that I could.
I was always frugal - my family has always thought of me as a saver. Initially, I just saved, then I bought a house that was a dump, with a small mortgage (this is Australia, so small is not necessarily small) but 18% interest. I paid off the mortgage in 5 years. We gradually improved the place. By the time I sold it, it was a very nice house.
I had always had problems with my job because I was sick all winter every winter. I was retrenched from one job, and part of the retrenchment package was some financial advice - started a stash. When I got another job sickness was still a major problem. I became a contractor and less than six months later (if I had had six months of employment history there would have been compensation, but there was none) I had an accident that left me with whiplash for three years, and unable to do a lot of things. I lost a lot of money over that time - I think I added up at least $100k - but it all came out of the stash, so it really wasn't a problem.
I moved interstate and stopped being sick in winter and the whiplash stopped. I bought my new house with cash (which astonished the real estate agent). The mess my financial affairs had got into was straightened out, and my financial adviser said I had enough to retire on. Didn't believe her. Five years and three financial advisers later, I retired. All of them had told me I had enough to retire on. And I actually did.
All in all, I was at least 10 years older when I retired than I could have been, because of the accident and the amount it took from the stash, and not believing I had enough. I still retired early although I didn't get the wages that some people here earn. But then, I never spent what some people here spend.
If I had not been a woman, I probably would have started a stash earlier. The messages I received when I was young were that women don't buy houses, don't invest, and don't manage money. It took some time to get over those messages.