I don't even know where to start.
1. Spent 4 years in the military; made way more money than I needed and spent every penny. No savings, no investments, nothing. Got married while I was in, had one kid, divorced a couple of years after I got out. I don't regret the divorce; he was an asshole and I was too young.
2. Post-military and post-divorce, in school full-time, worked very part-time, used student loan and GI Bill money to maintain the same standard of living I'd had as part of an active-duty dual-military couple.
3. Didn't even finish school, and if I had, it would have been a completely useless degree. Still, $24K in student loans and nothing to show for it.
4. Fourteen-plus years of bulimia. Thousands of dollars quite literally down the toilet, plus medical bills, etc. Still working on this one.
I'm 31 now and just woken up. I feel like I've wasted my entire life, financially, but am grateful that I'm young enough that I still have time to turn it around. Getting husband on board has been tough, but I'm making progress. I found YNAB last year, which led me to MMM, and the combination has been eye-opening. Right now I'm just working on getting out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, but I have a long-term goal to be FIRE by 50.
My parents are in their late 50's, no retirement or other savings, living paycheck to paycheck. Somehow they have money for my mom to have a fancy DLSR camera, my dad to have a boat, vacations every year, eating out every week, satellite tv, etc. The thought of being in that position terrifies me, and is a huge motivation.