There are still one or two folk I know of who will reach 55 and still be in quarters, never owned their own home and the gratuity is no way going to buy them a house
That has always been the case, including amongst some people who you would have thought might have known better. I remember holding at 11/18Gp and hearing of an Air Commodore in that exact position. It was only with months to go before he left that the reality of his situation hit home and what should have been a relatively comfortable retirement was suddenly going to rather tighter than he and his family had imagined. But up until that point, they had spent all their time living in cheap quarters, enjoying the holidays and a certain quality of life that even a 1* pension wasn't going to be able to make up for.
No idea what happened to him, and whilst we all had a degree of sympathy, the over riding feeling was of a self-inflicted injury. I suspect that given society's drift towards a sense of self-entitelment and immediate gratification without consideration for the consequences, there are probably more than a few who are in the same boat.