10 years is also (very roughly) the historical average doubling time for an investment in the s&p 500. one way to look at that is for every $1 you didn't save a

10 years is also (very roughly) the historical average doubling time for an investment in the s&p 500. one way to look at that is for every $1 you didn't save at age 25 while building experience at a "scrappy" startup, you need to save $2 at age 35 just to break even on retirement. that's probably not infeasible; you don't have to double your salary to double your savings. but it's a significant amount of drag you need to overcome for the "trade comp for career growth" advice to work out.