<prompt> Human: Ive invested a few thousand dollars here and there in the stock market but for the most part I just like to keep all my extra cash sitting in savings accounts. The richest person I know told me dont invest anything youre not prepared to lose and thats basically how Ive been living - if I lose 5-10k then alright, but if I lose 100-200k then you can go ahead and just kill me. So most of my money just sits in the bank and collects the usual 0.0000000001 interest.I read the subreddit faq and it says that the stock market tends to increase over long periods of time 10-30 years but this isnt guaranteed, right? You could put your life savings in there and then check back 30 years later and have next to nothing, couldnt you? So what if you just dont want to take the risk? Is there a better place to store money than a savings account? I have to assume the answer is no and that there are no 100 guaranteed investments as that would seem to defeat the point. And I do realize that due to inflation etc savings accounts actually lose money, but at least its a predictable amount and losing it all or a massive portion of it wont happen unless the entire country crumbles to the ground. All of my friends are always saying just risk it! itll probably go up! but that just sounds crazy.So basically my question is whether there are investments with guaranteed non-negative returns making savings accounts essentially obsolete, or if nothing like that exists and I should just keep doing what Im doing, assuming I dont want to take on that risk.  <response>: CD certificate of deposit accounts are FDIC insured.But the issue is that without the potential to gain substantial compound interest over the long term, you will not have enough to retire. So why not take the risk that youll be able to retire, otherwise youll have to work the rest of your life anyways. 