If you really consider it, you can find a remarkable range of life's situations that are inherently risky. Nearly everything a person does is some type of gambling. Even with such mundane act of getting up and going to work, online lottery (ans.edu.my published a blog post) increases one's probability of being killed in a transportation accident. In face of today and everything you know about investing, be it in business, an asset class (stocks, bonds, real estate, cash and commodities), or index fund, even in its most basic element, it is nothing but "betting" that someday tomorrow is going to be better with pleasant expected returns on investment; or maybe not. There is only one big risk you should avoid and that's the risk of doing nothing and not taking your chance.

Come to look-at it in face value, investing in almost any money market really is, legalized gambling, per se.