I believe that people shouldn't wait until 50. Everyone should be taught from a young age, to understand that companies are just places that hire you only until you are useful and economical for them. The recent mass layoffs at big-tech companies are further proof that one shouldn't link their emotions, loyalty or future to a company. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (or rather, Machine Learning) algorithms, the redundancy of older jobs and the creation of new types of jobs are likely. So there are two things that people can learn.

1. Become financially independent ASAP. Avoid pitfalls like loans, mortgages, pointless expensive holidays, expensive things, too many kids and financially draining relationships.

2. Spend time in building not only good relationships that can get you jobs, but also building and enriching the freelance world where one can focus on bits of work and leisure at ones own convenience.

After having suffered severe eye strain and finding it difficult to return to the usual grid of a corporate job, I started compiling a list which I hope would be helpful to others: https://nav9.medium.com/a-freelancers-list-4a3b08c2905e