Currently, I’m rapidly approaching 38 and feeling a bit conflicted about my financial position. On one hand, I’m making decent money (70K), have almost no debt, have my own car, have at least a 6 month reserve in savings (40K), and just started to build my 401K (have about 50K saved). On the other hand, I don’t own a house (and have no idea how I could afford one), feel like I will never have enough to retire, and just am behind a lot of people at my age. I have a job in tech, but I live in a medium cost of living area and have a lot of stability and flexibility with my job, which comes at a cost of salary.

I have a boyfriend and he is just starting to make decent money now (60K) and hopefully make even more (he is a data engineer), I am hoping we are able to live together soon, which would help us share some costs.

Where do you feel someone should be financially at 40 and how did you get there? How does someone grow what they have into a bigger nest egg and gain more wealth?