The first major plateau to get to is creating a life that makes you happy and is sustainable for the rest of your life.
It would be easy to spend everything you have now to create happiness, but that is at the expense of your retirement.
You could give up now in order to be assured money in retirement, but then you are giving up happiness today for an unknown future.
The ideal is to create a financial life that supports a lifestyle that keeps you happy. Then the ebbs don’t matter, you just live the lifestyle that keeps you happy. The flows you use for extraordinary experiences.
This takes skill, focus, and discipline as well as an understanding of what truly makes you happy.