[nogbit]

I did the following, and seeing others who did not I don’t know how they manage when older.

Have kids, while you are young. Your body will be able to do all the fun things along side them without worry about a bad back or something else.

Don’t worry about career progression, worry instead about adding value to yourself that transcends (think education, various employment and domain knowledge in various industries).

Have work life balance, which maybe means working at places (think public services or health care) so you can spend time doing the things you enjoy, which very well may be moonlighting on tech that is 100% your IP (to each their own)

Get a house, they never get cheaper overtime.

Then when you are in your mid 40’s and your kids are moving out you can quickly catch up in no time at all, because remember, you have been building skills and a network that are now in bat shit crazy demand.