re: What changed your financial future for the better?

Have been blessed.
Grew up lower middle class in the piney wood hills of north Louisiana. Hard working dad set a very fine example . . . worked hard (37 years of 6 days a week, no vacation, no benefits, etc) BUT never complained. Got up, went to work (rural mail carrier = 127 miles per day 400 + families on his route), came home, worked his garden, etc.
I went to work in 1980 for a large chemical company, worked for 27 years and then they offered a severance package to several of us "old timers" as well as bridging us to our retirement. Started drawing my monthly retirement from them (~$2800 per month) and being only 52 at that time, went back to work for another company making a nice salary. . . .
Also, about the time I "retired" from company A, kids were grown and on their own . . . so we decided to "down size" ... sold our house of 20 years that cost $71,000 when we bought ... sold for over $200K. Only owed ~$10 so took part of the equity, bought a smaller house in a great neighborhood, banked the rest.

Again . . . no financial wizardry here . . . just fortunate and very blessed.

Oh, and I have managed to keep the same wife that is very frugal for 32 years . . . no property settlement digging into my $$