The secret to a secure retirement or just another overpriced financial instrument? As life expectancy in the United States continues to rise, experts in the financial services industry have developed instruments to assist those preparing for retirement.

One of these tools is an annuity, which upon its purchase, will provide an individual with an income stream for the duration agreed upon in the contract. While this may seem like a simple and relatively straightforward solution, a TIAA-CREF study found that only 14% of Americans have actually purchased an annuity, despite 84% being interested in a guaranteed source of income like the annuity provides.

Tony Robbins, renowned motivational speaker and six-time international best-selling author, often tells his audiences, “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.” 

For many, consistency suggests a lack of spontaneity and imagination. And regarding work, some may think of it as plugging away at the daily grind.  But for Robbins and others, consistency is viewed an art unto itself, a virtue envied by others, and a business strategy that can yield great return. 

Enter Lori Greiner, inventor and entrepreneur.

I’ve been thinking about starting a stock market prediction business. Clearly, there is a huge market for timely information of this type, and just as clearly, predicting the future must be much easier than dealing with the realities of what is actually happening at the moment. If investors could know what’s likely to happen next, they could develop a plan to deal with it NOW; maybe Wall Street will help me get this new business up and running. What’s that?

Wall Street institutions already spend billions predicting future price movements of stock market individual issues & indices, commodities, and hemlines.. Really?

Automation may out-perform investors who lack financial literacy. The robot revolution, which has automated industries as far apart as automobiles and law, threatens to put more than half of today’s jobs into metal, not human, hands.

And if the jobs vanish, so too does the cash needed to plan, save, invest, and thrive during retirement — although, can it really be called retirement if someone doesn’t work beforehand? Financial advisors interviewed by “The Suit” magazine over the past year repeatedly have raised concerns over two emerging problems facing the financial services industry —

Chasing hot stocks and quick returns, great for financial titans, bad for you.

Browse the financial headlines and enormous rewards seem within reach. “Five stocks that will boost your portfolio,” reads one headline of a prominent financial news site. “The 10 stocks you don’t have, but need,” screams another, “The only stock that will matter in 2017,” declares a third. Judging from the headlines, achieving financial success requires just a few quick stock purchases of who’s hot, and who’s not.

Obviously, sometimes, the stock market is wrong.