[runawaybottle]

I think you will succeed in getting close to being financial secure simply because you have no choice. Thirty eight is late to the party, but the pressure is on.

Ten year plan sounds aggressive (again, what choice do you have), and will probably require aggressive investing.

One thing I think you can do is eliminate the notion of age. Having a home asset should be a good enough goal. If you can drop a big down payment on a home or outright buy a condo after 10 years of saving, then you can reasonably expect to not have large mortgage/rent to worry about later in life. If that stops being a worry, the need for a job starts to become less of a worry. By that time, you should hit retirement and ride the social security checks until the end.

The goal should be to remove the dependency on the economy for your livelihood.