I'm fifty years old and have nothing saved for retirement. I'm not an idiot, or whatever equivalent Mustachian word might be thrown around this forum about people like me. What I am is someone who's been a single parent of two since I was about thirty--before I finished my bachelor's degree.
One thing that bothers me on this forum is the message that if you just follow the program, everything will be grand and you'll come out ahead and be able to retire at fifty (or 32, or 45, or 29....) Sometimes I just want to scream at you all, "LIFE HAPPENS!" Did I make some stupid financial mistakes? Sure. But mostly, I just did whatever I had to do to get my kids through. That included using credit cards, refinancing my mortgage, and working two jobs. Knowing what I know now, I would have done some things differently, but not all--and some of the biggest financial errors (like doing anything I could to stay in our house) were actually the best parenting decisions I made. (Here's another one: NOT moving away from the high cost of living area where virtually all my family lives--what would I have done without their (non-financial) support?)
Now, with the kids grown and (almost) self-supporting, in addition to no retirement savings, I have enormous student loan debt (both mine and my kids') to repay, as well as a large mortgage, but I'm still not moving away from this area, because my family--the ones who helped me out when I needed it--will need my help as they get older. I don't understand why more people here don't face that predicament.
I do work for the state so will have a pension, and will be able to have the balance of the student loans forgiven in ten years, so I'll do better in retirement than one might think. You know what would have really helped during the years I was accessing too much credit in order to support my kids? A government that went after child support payments as strenuously as it does student loan debt.