I think cyber security is going to be huge too, but not sure how to make a play on it, don't see any obvious winners in the security space. What approach do you take?
This has been true in my experience. Interviewed at FB recently, they gave me a take-home project that we would go over together in the on-site interview. I spent a lot of effort on the project instead of typical white-board coding. I did great on the project but did so-so on the white-boarding. No offer.
What's wrong with a Roth IRA? You withdraw the principal penalty-free at any time, and you don't pay taxes on the growth in retirement. You don't even have to invest it in stocks if you're risk-averse.
Target retirement date funds, a handful of individual stocks for entertainment purposes. I also have dabbled with Lending Club (annualized ROI went from 15% to less than 5% recently) and the money saved on interest in paying back my student loans early.