actually, a lot of jews invest follow their parents/family advices and later use the money to buy their house. if you invest an any blue-chip stock, you are guaranteed to make money by 10-20 years times. Many of them decide to take the easy life and work as everyone else, a good portion of them will continue to run their family businesses, only a small portion will actually start their own business, but that small portion is significantly bigger than another cultural group per capita. When your parents said you should buy share, their impression are day trading, which the trader are often long/short with leverage or on burrowed money. The only reason why ppl think it is only day trading is because most ppl, including your parents who get the wrong idea about share market, only want to make quick money, they don't want to make money properly. Their reason to reject share investing is a sign of their own greed.