John, yes it is not easy to get 12% per year for long periods of time, and I agree that not many are able to do it in the stock market. I do both stocks and real estate. Note real estate doesn’t have to be a lot of work if you use property management. I own seven houses and spend about two hours per month keeping the books, maybe answering one or two emails per month. My worst house returns 12% (of course appreciation is good now, so it may not earn that forever).

So there are definitely ways to do it. There is also passive investing in commercial real estate, which typically returns more than 12% and requires no work other than selecting the project you want to invest in.