I have a similar story as your first point. It boils down to tucking away money with each financial gain. I put in enough to my 401k to get the full match, then with each raise, increase the amount invested by the raise. I'd already learned to spend within my limits and had no credit card debt, so each raise was "new money". Years later, after adjusting our financials to pay for daycare, when the daycare expenses dropped (infants are most expensive, costs drop down as they age), we started putting into a college savings and some for school expenses. We had saved up enough to pay for private school, which was less than daycare. Now that private school is done, college is paid for, we're paying down the mortgages. We locked in at 3% years ago. The house will be paid off when the kid graduates HS and we turn 55 and are eligible for the employer's retirement program, including health care. We plan to travel in those years where we're young enough to be healthy and old enough to have some money tucked away.

Oh, we also did the same for cars. When the car was paid off, we'd put the same money into a separate bank account and when it was tome to look for a new car, we had almost enough to pay for it outright.

Of course all of this can only happen when you have the skill to spend with your means.