The key is time. When I started saving my first centavo, and I was able to double it to 2 centavos, I thought, man, I wish I could just jump into the future...go past all the hard work I will be doing, all the kids I will be paying for food and education for the next 30 years, and mortgages to pay and be where I'm at 50 years old.
Some will make shortcuts and kudos to them....like basketball players and artists who make it big at a young age.
For most of us, there are no shortcuts to time. One just have to let the aging process take over.
I'm so happy to say I have now gone to where I'm 52.
-- The 30 years of work from age 22-51 has been done. I still have 5 more years I have to work. But 5 years is way better than 35 years.
-- One kid is in 2nd year of college, the other in 3rd grade. I have saved for the first kids' entire college but I'm still working and saving for the younger one.
-- Mortgages for the houses have been fully paid. This is huge. No more debt / liens on the house. Still need to save for house maintenance, insurance, and taxes but those are minimal compared to paying for the house.
Now I can really just focus on saving for my retirement. I see myself semi-retired in 5 years at 56 (just doing part-time work from there) and fully retired at 62 (i.e., social security takes over).