I was saving for retirement in my 20's. My future ex-wife destroyed my life with the help of a superior court judge. When the court decided to bankrupt me and reduce my income to below poverty by giving 65% of my take home pay to this useless cunt, the judge smirked and said, "you should have thought of that before you decided to get divorced." I replied, "You should learn to READ. She filed this divorce to run off with someone." No matter, he smiled and said, "Ohhhhh well." It took a year and they destroyed my life, took every penny and saddled me with an additional $15,000 in her credit card debt. I restarted my retirement plans 30 years ago, from ZERO.
Today I am retired. It takes hard work.
I worked with a 56yo guy who literally said, "I've gotta start putting something away soon, it is nearly time to retire." I've met hundreds of people along the way who literally put away $50 bucks a pay day and are surprised with 65 hits and they have almost nothing in the bank.
Weird anti-government Jesus freaks, certified idiots who think banks are evil, basic idiots and people living large. They all arrive at the end broke as hell. I had a utility job for 21 years that had a $60 buck a pay day matching contribution to your 401K. Every two weeks, you give them $60 dollars and they give YOU $60 dollars. Literally a .75 cent an hour pay bump. Hate stocks? They have mutual funds. Hate funds? They have bonds? Hate stocks, bonds and mutual funds? They have a money market that pays 3%.
I had two employees who straight up REFUSED a free $60 bucks. It took almost two years to convince them. This two scientists argued like hell to NOT get paid an extra $1560 a year. When they one finally retired a year after I changed jobs, I went to his retirement party. He sheepishly looked at me and smiled. He had nearly $45K in his retirement 401K and it was all in the money market. That was on top of the pension, social security, a paid for house and his other savings. You need to be smart enough to take free money.
Your failure to plan is YOUR fault.