Financial mistakes of the 20s haunt in our 30s

35M. I have been thinking about this a lot and come to the conclusion that financial mistakes of the 20s(early in career) haunt us in our 30s. That expensive watch, iphone, car loan or home loan we sign up for at 28 means our nest egg is drawn down by that much.

By the time 30s dawn upon us, we find scrambling to increase salary, learn new stuff just keep our place on the hamster wheel. Add to it the AI induced uncertainties. Not my personal experience fully but see so many of my friends stuck in an endless loop of salary EMI and competitive materialism.