If you really consider it, you will find a remarkable number of life's situations that will be inherently risky. Nearly everything a person does is some form of online gambling (just click the following page). Even with such mundane act of getting up and going to work, increases one's probability of being killed in a transportation accident. In face of today and everything you know about investing, whether it be in business, an asset class (stocks, bonds, real estate, cash and commodities), or index fund, even in its most basic element, it's nothing more than "betting" that someday tomorrow is going to be better with pleasant expected returns on investment; or perhaps not. There is just one big risk you should avoid and that is 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.