Sigh. It's almost painful to look back the last 10 years. I was married back then, young, with a toddler. I was mostly staying at home with my daughter and taking care of our home and rental house. If we still had that rental house, well, we'd have a lot of money right now. No use looking back with regret, though. AS a couple we had good intentions with the moeny we made but never really stuck to one path of financial growth. I was fortunate to be able to stay home with my children while they were young, and I was able to earn my master's degree. My spouse had a wife who took care of the homefront while he was away for work most of the year, and I could drop everything to be with him on work trips when suitable. So the money didn't get wasted, it went to where we wanted it to go. Would I do things differently? Yes. But not a whole lot differently. And not if it meant I couldn't stay home with my kids and I couldn't support my spouse while he was doing his job. Those things were important to our family.

These next 10 years will be different. I am no longer married, and now I have a child in elementary school and middle school. I have a career now, and I'm working on additional certification to expand my career options in the next few years. I purchased a home all on my own, that I rent out. I'm responsible for my bills and savings. I've done great saving on my own, and I plan on continuing down the same path in the next 10 years.
I want to double my salary in the next 10 years. That means I will have to look beyond teaching. I can become a specialist of some sort, or branch out into the private sector for work with children with special education needs.
I am still going to relocate somewhere tropical within the next 10 years. Hopefully sooner, as I want my children to be young enough to enjoy it as a family. I should be able to find a teaching position out there, especially with the additional certification I am going to earn.
So I will keep paddling along, with my long-term goals in mind. Good choices are what will get me to my dreams!