Nothing is 100% guaranteed and some unfortunate people lose their shirt, and everything else along with it. It takes a certain amount of knowledge, skill, intuition, and guts to invest in real estate. If you have these characteristics, and you do it right, real estate can be a great investment.
Real estate can be a good investment if you educate yourself and go about it the right way. If you want to use real estate to build a steady source of retirement income, exercise patience and work systematically as you build a portfolio of income producing properties.