I don't have a 401(k), and I only had $110k saved. For my entire life, I have I kept my money out of the stock market. I only dabbled a little - only $600 of my savings came from a few shares of AMZN that I bought and sold back in 2017. The rest was from paychecks.
I started to wise up last year, when I read that the yield curve had inverted. I didn't have a clue as to what event would trigger a drop in stocks, but I knew something was coming. So my plan for months has been to buy when most people were panicking, and then to basically just sit on the stocks until cooler heads prevail.
Over a two week period starting on March 16th, I put every cent of my savings into the market. I learned on my feet, dumping the ETF shares I bought (VOO) for only an $89 loss, going directly against diversification, in favor of buying things I think I understand.
And you know what? I'm up 40 grand, and I really believe in the stocks I picked. As the other automakers drive off a cliff, TSLA is positioned perfectly (batteries, autonomy, lower TCO). And AAPL makes great products instead of depending on advertising. (I have other positions, including a bet on Chinese eVTOL maker eHang, but I'll keep this brief.)
What I'm doing is pretty damn risky in the short-term. I could still lose all my gains and much of my principal. And I only have $10k in cash to live off of if I can't find a job.
Hatred of the billionaires - whose companies invent and produce the things that drive our living standards up - also hurts conscientious people like me. Instead of envying the rich, focus on how to get rich yourself.
NB: Gains from stocks are not free money! What I'm doing feels like a full-time job, as I continually worry about losing everything. This involves an incredible amount of research and planning, the ability to take on an incredible amount of risk, and that's stuff that the envious haters never see.