There are so many imponderables/uncertainties in life that's it's impossible to generalise. Marriages break down, people suffer poor health, children get into bad company. My own life has been, by most standards, easy, but I don't rush to judge or condemn those dealt a worse hand by fate or events. I made two sensible decisions from my point of view quite early in life: paying into a pension scheme from the age of 23, and buying a flat in a 'good' neighbourhood aged 26. The first means that I have financial security in retirement, the second meant that I could move up the property ladder before house prices went insane. It worked for me, but not everyone would have had those chances in the past, and very few will have them now.