I don't think I wasted my life because I always knew home base had to be safe by the time I was 60
Also I always knew I should work to live & not live to work. As a contractor I had plenty of time off between jobs...
I retired at 55 moved to Thailand & liked it a lot but left after 6 years
Now we are still happy & live a nice life but at times feel I am wanting more & miss some things from Thailand too,
Covid made it hard because it seemed we were all wasting time for 3 years with no trips to Thailand or anywhere for that matter
Now we will return to Thailand in a few weeks for our usual 3 month a year stay & we will have an extra hard look
at where we want to spend the majority of our "remaining" time