It's even more surprising when I find 30 year olds who haven't figured out to use the company match on their 401k yet.
Useful advice for a micro-fraction of the population, but this sounds like advice on "How best to wax your yachts" compared to even the average developer.
Calling it gambling, however, is dishonest, and is popular among those who want to use that characterization to serve the purpose of denying people the opportunity to invest. For instance, despite working in startups for 20 years, regulations prevent me from being an angel investor (though it seems its common in california to simply ignore those regulations) ... because people like you think that I shouldn't be allowed to decide where to invest my money. Yet I could go to Las Vegas and blow $100k in a weekend.
So, no, it's not gambling. It's investing. And shame on you for saying otherwise.
Gambling is defined as "an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success." That's exactly what people do when they buy a stock or invest in a start-up. They just go to sites like E-trade and Schwab to do it rather than PokerStars. Unless you know of some risk-free stock where chance is not a factor (I'm all ears).
A gambling game where the house historically doesn't win (if you don't try to day trade). And historically, your money doubles in ~7 years.
> Sure, there are plenty of people who hit that jackpot too
Yes, many people hit that jackpot.
> let's not lump that together with the idea that 9-5 salary is a way to get rich.
There are many well off upper middle class that own multiple homes this way and retire at a reasonable if not early age, with a net worth that will leave substantial amounts to their kids.
And that's as only a part time investor. I like sure things (like I knew in 2001 from an understanding of economics that there would be a housing bubble and that it would eventually burst. I was never able to buy CDOs against the market, but I did profit from it until 2007 when things got crazy and I got out of the market-- a year early but I'll take it.)
I suspect most people can't do this... but they can buy a house or two in up and coming areas, and put extra salary into that. Rent one out, get your mortgage paid by your tenants and you're building a real estate empire... slowly, but it can make you rich.