I&#x27;ve known deca-millionaire trust fund kids who ended up broke (or dead).<p>I&#x27;ve known immigrants who started with nothing and ended up fantastically independently wealthy.<p>And the vast, vast majority of people who settle somewhere near the middle.<p>What nobody teaches you is: it&#x27;s all about luck.<p>Below that, the fine print: the harder you work and the more you sacrifice, the luckier you will get.<p>&#x27;&#x27;If only&#x27;&#x27; works both ways.  If only - then I would have been successful in some way.  If only - then I wouldn&#x27;t have met the partner who I fell in love with.  It works both ways but people tend to overweight the negative (regret) and underweight the positive (gratitude).  All you can do (young, old, or in between) is get up every day, be realistic about where you are and where you want to be, and keep moving forward.