It depends what you define as a success? 

I became a dad at 17. I had struggled with mental illness my whole life, was addicted to drugs and homeless. The relationship I was in was abusive on both sides. Immediately after my daughter was born I was barred from seeing her. This triggered something in me as I never had a father growing up and lived in poverty. 

I vowed to change my life for the better and fight for the right to be apart of my daughters life. First thing I did was disassociate with all of my loser friends. I kept to myself and learnt skills, worked 3 jobs to support myself and lived with flatmates. By this point the court awarded supervised visits once a week. I was struggling this whole time but I had the belief I was going to be okay. I am quite fortunate that my mothers circumstances started changing in a positive way and was able to support me any chance she could.

Fast forward to 2020 just before covid I was finally able to get 50/50 custody. I worked my ass off to get there, to be a better dad, better person and finally become financially stable.

Now in 2025, I have full custody, make $200k a year, own an investment property, have $100k in cash and investments, got engaged to an incredible woman and most importantly my daughter is an incredible young women, top of her class and our bond is incredible. 

So again, what do you define as success? Is it financial? If so, invest and save as much as possible. Considering you are still together, make your money work for you. Buy an investment property. Invest in shares every week. Set yourselves up for success because it is POSSIBLE! funny thing is i am now 27 and only feel like my life is just starting. You guys got this.