My ex wife’s dad worked his ass off, was wildly frugal and did nothing through his entire life up to retirement. 3 years after retiring he started showing signs of early onset dementia. It’s now been three years and it’s progressed terrifyingly fast. The man never lived and his opportunity to is gone.

I’m no longer thinking so hard about retirement and am looking more at living now through the rest of my ‘good’ years first. I’m still putting money toward my 401k, and I’m still hoping to retire someday, but it’s not the big hope anymore. I’d rather work till o die having lived the best life I could than do what he did.