Anyone making an engineering level salary in the US should be saving a portion of their money and investing in the stock market. There are a wide variety of options that involve no commissions and allow you to own a broad cross section of the market. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is a good place to start. As are Vanguard's age based funds and automatically reallocate to more conservative positions as you get older.
Writing off the stock market as a "casino for rich people" is a good way to make yourself poorer.
I wish there was a crash course on this when I was in college. I've been meaning to understand stock market, how to get involved. The most I got was 401k but I don't even look at my Fidelity. I know certain industries are projecting or doing well currently... but ugh.
Writing off the stock market as a "casino for rich people" is a good way to make yourself poorer.