Social Security.

its borderline socialist, but its not secure.  i like this article:

http://constitutionalconservative.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/social-security-bankrupt-in-2017/

We all need to take control of our OWN retirement.  Company pensions have been slashed.  The stock market is hardly predictable for investing.   If (and when) nterest rates go up - the value of bonds and other interest bearing instruments goes down.

Real estate provides a unique combination of cash flow, real tax free appreciation,  principal reduction and certainty.  Remember travel agencies and storefront stock brokerages?  internet made them obsolete VERY quickly.  Those who invested in them lost when they closed their doors.  Houses??  People have to live somewhere.  And we are not making any less of them - the supply is unlimited!!!!

Who would have thought when I bought the duplex where i was living in Victorian Village in 1985 that i would later become one of the largest single family Investors in Central Ohio?   I was working at Deloitte & Touche and wanted to stop renting.  i learned ALOT and generally the hard way.  I had to evict the tenants from the other side after listening to their hardship stories for over a year (and not getting alot of rent).  i had to rehab the unit - i was in Phoenix when i learned the painters had painted the trim we had pain-stakingly stripped with the same paint as the walls!!!   But then it was finally done and i got a couple of my friends to rent that side - along with an Ohio State grad assistant coach named Urban Meyer (now the Head Coach at Florida).  Wish i still had that duplex - i had to sell it for money for an engagement ring, a wedding, a downpayment and furniture.  I bought it for $36K in 1985, sold it for $56K in 1986 and it just sold for $204K a couple years ago (without substantial improvements).