investing for growth my whole life, and still am. But retirement is no longer a mythical beast in a crystal ball, it is a real thing that isn't THAT far away. With a semi-cooperative stock market, maybe 10-12 years.

I'm honestly not entirely sure what to do then. I know a fair amount of your nest egg needs to stay in growth investments because even at age 60, you still have a 20+ year time horizon for some of your money. But do I just do passive investing for income? Buy rental properties with cash to generate income? Stick with moderate and aggressive growth and just withdraw principle instead of worrying about generating income?

Everything I've ever learned about investing has been from the perspective that retirement is WAY down the road. And the old-school advice is that when in retirement, switch everything to ultra-conservative and safe things, plus maybe a few high-grade corporate bonds. But that just seems awful conservative given life expediencies in retirement these days.