For now, what's insane is thinking that society can survive with people not working in their able-bodied years.
It's already silly that I'm spending my 20s and 30s writing code.
Plus the code I write doesn't do anything for society's survival. We could just about switch the entire tech industry to maintenance mode, cut jobs by 90% and society would get along just fine, as long as we figure out a way to distribute necessities like food and housing without money.
The same can be said about an enormous chunk of the workforce. We're forced to work for survival but the jobs we perform aren't truly necessary, they're ultimately derived from an illogical and unsustainable obsession with growth.
Most of society doesn't _need_ to be working at all and society would get along just fine if it wanted. It just doesn't want to.
Realistically though, more like 40 (another 17 years). I generally save about half my income, which over the next 17 years should build to >$1M, which is enough to buy a house outright in a nice area with a few hundred thousand left over to spend on living expenses.
> What are some common mistakes software engineers make that prevent them from getting their sooner?
Living and working in the bay area, spending their money. If you work at MicroGoogleBookZon, you can usually transfer to a region with a lower cost of living without much of a salary hit and save that money. Even if you stay in the bay area, you can drastically reduce the cost of living by increasing your commute or living with others. It's less pleasant but you don't have to do it as long.
Also, you don't have to retire to the same place you save your money in. You can work and save in Seattle, then retire to say rural Minnesota. If you're happy with that, you can retire much earlier.