and investing in “index funds” is not gambling?! :) if you buy index funds do you even know what you bought? or is it just “hey everyone else is doing imma do it too?”
jokes aside surely there are plenty of people who gambled and lost their entire accounts on 1 or 2 stocks. but there is a difference in buying biotech startup out of Springfield MO and buying Apple
my basic argument isn’t that you should blow your savings on some single stock of some rando company but that doing something like 45% Apple, 20% Amazon, and spred another 20% among 2-3 companies in energy etc… is much better option than buying index fund. and over last decade would have 100x your money over VTSAX… and is just as “safe”