Getting more than 2% annualized return isn't terribly difficult. Getting 10% annualized return like the OP says is super-hard. There are lots of pretty safe i

Getting more than 2% annualized return isn't terribly difficult. Getting 10% annualized return like the OP says is super-hard. There are lots of pretty safe investments that get you 3-4% real return. Now, are they zero risk? No. But I'm not suggesting that anyone bet their life savings on this, I'm talking about buying a car, something that people will generally do a bunch of times in their life and won't be spending their retirement on. If you can get 2% APR on your car purchase, and you invest the money you save, you should more than cover that APR the strong majority of all times.