1) Sounds like we hold similar views and outlooks on 1 although your odds of significantly exceeding the target appear better than mine by about a factor of 2.

2) 8-10 is for "conservative" investors. Sounds like you just planned conservatively but didn't invest conservatively. A long term play in the stock market with any significant exposure to investment classes with higher average gains should net about 12%. Planning on my 401K alone without pension or SS is how I played my planning conservative. Don't see how you got where you say you are by investing in asset classes that should yield 8-10% unless you save a huge portion of income or have a very high one.

3) Ditto as well, but reduced kid expenses alone should help with that not to mention the time to do it.

4) DJ is hard to beat? I'd say you've done very well, but wouldn't benchmark against DJ. Don't think that's a challenge except in very bad years for smallcaps.

5) Here's where I put my learning cap on. Real estate scares the crap out of me. I can ride the stock roller coster with nary a whimper, but the thought of dealing with renters or cash outflows (loans) with no inflows (rents) makes me quake in my boots. It's one of the pillars of investment which you seem to have mastered that just seams basically low ROI unless you really know what you are doing. Of course I've read a lot less about it because of my basic quandary how do you make money off of people who can't afford to pay the mortgage you took out on the rental property? It just seems like a mode where you have to be a lot more of a hardass than I'm willling to be. I may be way off track though, are you in residential or commercial real estate? Always though commercial was for those who already had deep pockets.

6) I've already had the pleasure of making an amount similar to my salary off the market, and often see rises of a months pay over a much shorter term, but have also lost close to a years pay in major down turns. On the net, It tells me I'm on the right path. I don't expect to make a lot more relative to current pay in retirement though unless my methodology changes, I forgo early retirement, or a potential windfall I'm not wishing for comes in.

7) I agree you have a highly usable definition of success. I also started pretty much from scratch. <10% of my total comes from a gift from my granfather I reluctantly sold and is reserved primarily for my kid's major expenses not my retirement. My father became a millionaire in assets (through inheritance and hard work at hobby) and moved fairly high up the corporate ladder after I graduated from college (which he paid less than 20% of) so I might eventually receive a large sum. I don't count on it due to my fathers 3rd (and finally lasting) marriage to someone 10 years younger. At any rate, I just really dislike the inheritance mentality that plans on something good at the expense of a loved one and feuds over inheritance. It's part of why I'm not a fan of inherited wealth. Of course, inheritance in my family is something like getting a herd of white elephants anyway rather than a monetary windfall. Great fun to ride and too sentimental about to sell. Can you guess that asset class? I'd rather build wealth my way than the way my dad did and grandfather did after he sold his business. I don't think hobbies should dominate your assets, it makes it too hard to make rational financial decisions.

8) That's a 180 from my wife.