Most of the posters here are some way into their lives. Some are already in their mid-50s. If by this age and they have not yet amassed some wealth then they will have big problem retiring.

So ask yourself. How are your parents doing in terms of networth? If they are like the posters here who have amassed some wealth, then you have some reference to base your future wealth projection.

For my case, my parents (already in their 80s) were not highly educated and thus they didnt have good incomes when they were working. As such they couldnt save adequately for their retirement. They are depending on us for financial support.

So it was important for us to do better than my parents in order to have a comfortable life, bring up my own family and still able to support my parents. This was what spurred me on.

At 27, you are just starting out, so you still have another 40 years of working to amass your fortune. So you should benchmark against your cohort and not despair unnecessarily. Start investing early also.

I am already 56 and at most have another 6 to 9 years of working life. At least for us, the investment that we have been building up over the years, have started to provide us streams of passive income sufficient to cover our expenses without the need for us to ever draw down our capital.