When Hurricane Helene passed through, she knocked down one of the giant pecan trees that'd been growing here for a century or more. I've never seen Pecans of this stature before, so i was a sad moment when she was toppled.
As my time at the forge comes to an end, this downed tree seems more prophetic than I like. I'm sure she also thought to have more days under the sun, and now she's gone.
So this is my lesson for all the young folks out there -- I know it seems like there's plenty of time, but there really isn't. You get to a point where you just don't have any way of fixing your mistakes and making up for lost time. Your goal should be to have things on track by the time you're 30. And certainly by 40. This doesn't mean that you won't have ups and downs, but you absolutely need to always have the long-term goal in mind and be working towards that even if it means hopping jobs or getting part-time work. You can relax after you're retired. You can ease off the gas after you've built things up a bit.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking you can get started tomorrow because there comes a time when there just aren't enough tomorrows to repair the damage of bad decisions.