OP looking back and yearning for their childhood does not mean they did anything wrong in their life path. Growing away from your childhood is very common.

You have no idea if OP is proud of their path and is casually reminiscing or if they believe they should have done something different.

They're disconnected from their "inner child" the universal symbol of joyous freedom. No one yearns to be connected to their inner miserable child. The fact that they're asking, is an inherent sign of discontentness and I stand by it sounding bleak. And lots of people living bleak lives doesn't make them less bleak.

All of your wikihow tier advice is a weirdly specific to a life that we know nothing about.

The broad advice was in response to your broad context free question:

If you have an option to keep my free time and financial stability then I’m listening.

If you want better advice, ask a better question, if you want generic advice on how to have better financial stability and more free time, than the answer probably lies in your job, your housing, and your relationships.

OP has discipline to continually make the same decision to stay on their path instead of getting distracted by selfish instant gratification.

Lmao, look who's painting an oddly specific picture in literally the next sentence. XD