I wanted to share something personal about “the path to retirement” as I recently hit the mark of being within 10 years of retirement age. I was aiming to become semi-retired in 2021 after taking a partial buyout from my former company. Sometimes life throws you a curveball and you just have to adapt.

I try to review my investments routinely, always looking to see if there are better alternatives or better strategies. Having an all-in investment portfolio full of technology and growth stocks is just not appropriate for where I am now.

OK, so life interrupted semi-retirement. A serious illness in my immediate family required a lot of out-of-pocket expenses, enough that might bankrupt a lot of people. Then came the bone-crushing inflation. I chose to move to the Texas Hill Country in 2018, and since then my normalized monthly all-in cost of living fluctuates between 35% to 40% higher.

I recently sat down to and reviewed the Ogg Mantras for being a tactical bull. The core statement holds true more than ever — “Always being bullish is foolish. And always being bearish means you are broke.” The reality is that there is so much more to long-term financial planning.

What about my other core beliefs to work toward and to build a successful financial future? It’s one thing to “have a good year” but it’s another issue to work over multiple years and decades to get to retirement.

This is a list which I like to check in on from time to time to make sure that “staying on the right path” is actually working out. These are not necessarily in any order, even if some are more important to me personally than others. Here goes…

Time has proven over and over that the stock market is undeniably the greatest societal wealth creator.

Owning a home for many years is a forced savings vehicle that will create wealth almost without fail.

Know your cost of living and evaluate your expenses versus income, investments and savings.

You need to own “mailbox money” investments generating passive income (dividends, interest, rents, royalties, etc.).

Always understand exactly what you are investing in.

Do your best to quantify all of the risks in any investment.

You have to always keep some of your capital invested, even in bad times, if you expect to reach your life goals.

Always keep cash on hand to be able take advantage of new opportunities (or to deal with the unexpected) when they arise.

Skipping out on retirement plans is a certain way to being a ward of the state in your later years.

Those who refuse to invest and who make excuses their whole life not to invest are their own worst enemy.

Evaluate your past and current investments several times each year without emotion of your gain or loss on each investment.

And lastly…

If your retirement and aging plan is just for the government to take care of you, you probably are not going to like how the government takes care of you.