Yes and no. Does sideways count?
I didn't even really much get started on a direction until I was 26. Up until then, my only real goal was to have a job. But then I bought my first new car, lost my job, and had to live off of a credit card for 6 months while I saved my stashed cash to make car payments. I did get a new job, and I worked for a year until I paid off my bills, all the while looking for a new job. I was trying to sell myself as help desk/tech wonk and it paid off. I went from making like 12 bucks an hour to 18 bucks an hour. I've had that job for two years now and it's been good. Bought my first home last year, have a mortgage now, good times.
I kept it small, 1,000 sq. ft at 12 mile, about 4 miles away from Detroit. A nice little pocket of suburbia where the only crime is petty vandalism and theft for the most part. Costs me 617$ a month on the payment. Not bad, if I lost my job I could still pay my mortgage working at Burger King- that was the plan.
Eventually, I will make some rather large payments on my mortgage until the principal is knocked down by more than half. (around 35,000$ needed) Then I will try to renegotiate a smaller payment, say 250-300 a month. Then I will buy a second house, and rent out the first for 700-800 a month. Let someone else pay the rest of my mortgage, and keep the asset.
I will then use that asset as collateral for a small business loan, open a coffee shop or something when I don't feel like working in an office anymore. And if the business fails, at least I'm not out in the street- just out an extra house. If it succeeds, I have business and rental income and life will be good.
A lot of people my age or younger are not planning long term and people not retiring will continue to get worse over the next 30-40 years. A 401K just isn't gonna cut it unless you make the maximum contribution and your company has a great match. You need assets, currently you have student loan and credit card debt. At this point in your parents lives, maybe for some of you, your grandparents- they had homes, careers, money... and hell, most of them are still broke and pushing off retirement.
There will not be social security checks large enough to offset the lack of retirement savings or assets for this generation. It's gonna cause a big spike in crime as young people will be accustomed to not having/finding work. Young people are the prime demographic for most all crime. Good thing the birth rate is the lowest it's been since like 1910. If it stays low it won't be apocalyptic, but god damn it won't be pretty either way.
