Agreed. However, betting that over the course of your lifetime, the entire market (as represented by an index fund) will trend upwards seems like one of the safest bets around. And conversely, sticking your money in a savings account entails risk as well: you risk having your money decrease in value as inflation occurs, since you get paid much less interest than the rate of inflation. The question then becomes "which investment has the best combination of risk and reward?".