When I was fresh out of college, I put lots into a 401k. When I left that company, they mailed me a check (mistake 1), and my ex spent it to pay off her credit

When I was fresh out of college, I put lots into a 401k. When I left that company, they mailed me a check (mistake 1), and my ex spent it to pay off her credit cards (mistake 2). It took me 5 years to pay off the IRS, and it was another 5 years before I worked at another company that offered a 401k. I had stupidly placed the funds into the company stock as a sign of company loyalty, which dragged down my returns in the 401k, but since my ex blew it all, that mistake meant she had 1/2 as much money to piss away as there could have been (she was in charge of handling the household finances which was why I didn't catch it until the IRS sent me a nastygram [mistake 3]). Had I rolled it directly into an IRA, my retirement savings would be about 2x what they are now, and working for companies too cheap to offer 401k plans to employees for almost all of my 30s means that I have to put the max into 401k and IRA (for the rest of my working life) in order to avoid living under a bridge when I get too old to work.