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"...for a man in my age group, with no significant savings or other safety net, this is extremely scary"

I'm sorry you are in this situation. I applaud your self-awareness, and suspect you have enough skills and discipline to turn this around in the next few years. You may never get to the point of having millions tucked away for retirement, but do hope you can get to a point where you do have 'significant savings'. I'd measure that by your measure of 'extremely scary'.

My wife and I have no kids, so 'saving' has been somewhat easier 'by default' than some of our peers. That said, it's not automatic, and I know plenty of folks who are high earners who will manage to spend it all without 'significant savings' to speak of.

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Thank you! Don't have too much pity though, I'm doing okay. I live in the EU, no spouse, no kids, no commitments really. Not planning ahead is 100% my fault, but it's not an existential problem (yet). It's just time to finally stop spending everything as it comes in.

It's kind of obnoxious to even admit this, but I always assumed I'd be a successful person at some point down the line. This was of course utterly ridiculous and led to some really bad decisions. It was exploitable by other people, too. My work made a few people rich, and while I was always compensated for my time, I never got a proportional cut from the outcomes. But it wasn't a bad life, and there is still some fuel in the tank :)

Oh... EU... your 'social safety net' is ... stronger than ours in the US. I am nervous/scared about the future, and I have about 3-4 years of expenses in savings (not counting investments and retirement accounts). But I'm still somewhat 'nervous/scared'.

There is no single EU when it comes to topics like these, some parts are much better than others. But no place will ever save you from really bad financial mistakes or tons of small ones.

But you won't ever starve or have no place to sleep and your health will generally be taken care of, albeit not always in best way possible (ie dental care).

> But you won't ever starve or have no place to sleep and your health will generally be taken care of

Which are things I concerned myself with early on. I probably won't ever have to be homeless, but... health stuff - knowing that if I stop paying for 'insurance', regardless of how much I've paid in over... decades... I'll be denied things - that's still troubling.

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