The math nobody shows you about "wealth by 40"
Most wealth-before-40 content is either "grind harder" or "just invest in index funds" — neither tells you the actual sequence that matters.
Here's the order I've seen actually work, in this priority:
Kill high-interest debt first. No investment reliably beats 20%+ credit card interest. This isn't optional, it's math.
Build a 3-6 month buffer before investing aggressively. Without it, a bad month forces you to sell investments at the worst time.
Maximize tax-advantaged accounts before taxable brokerage. The tax drag on taxable accounts compounds against you for decades.
Increase income before optimizing expenses. You can only cut so much — there's no ceiling on what you can earn.
Automate the boring part. The people who actually hit their number aren't the ones who "try harder" — they're the ones who removed their own willpower from the equation.
Most people optimize step 5 before fixing steps 1-4. That's backwards, and it's why "I invest every month" and "I'm still broke" coexist for so many people.
What step are you stuck on?