In addition to everything else said in this thread -- all good stuff -- it's worth noting that there's often an upfront expense that's hard to overcome in order to invest in the stock market in any sort of meaningful way. For example, some of the stocks recommended by the likes of Mr Money Mustache require a $3,000 minimum first-time investment. That's a big hurdle for some, myself included. I'm in music and media, not tech, and while my income is pretty solid, my overhead is absurdly high relative to it. Putting aside $3k on top of doing the financially responsible things like maintaining rainy day funds, saving for retirement, etc, is just tough.