[squiffy]

The reality is that 10% per year, historically, is a good return. You should definitely study investing and it's definitely possible to make more. But there is a huge amount of risk, no matter how good you are at picking stocks.

The problem, for most people, is that investing has three aspects. All of which suck.

First, you need to work and study hard so that you can get a good job or start a successful business. This sucks because who wants to work and study hard. If you are a lawyer, you need to understand law, as well as math and finance/economics.

Second, you need to save a lot of money to invest. I put $1000 into ODP one time and made 60%. But that was only $600 big deal. But if I had $1 million dollars, I would have earned 600K. So bottom line is it takes money to make money.
But this sucks because who wants to save money when they could be spending it.

Third, you need to invest in something, stocks, real estate, a business, and NOT lose your ass.

In general, I have found that most people I run into are not willing to work hard enough or study hard enough, to achieve financial success.

Unless you will inherit money from millionaire parents, for the vast majority of people, getting a large amount of money will require hard work, patience, discipline, and study.

Read and study everything you can about stocks. Then decide for yourself what makes sense. Every book you read will teach you a little more. And you can compare the advice they give.