Been dealing with investment issues/strategies for many years but never had the help of a broker or "advisor" - except possible insights gained in casual conversation. So, no market expertise/advice here. The only thing I can offer is take a clear look at your current circumstances and your own likely future. That is probably a more predictable guide than guessing what the market, and the various market options, will do.
For a long time, my days (and often evenings) were taken up with job responsibilities and we were raising four kids - eventually seeing them through university studies. Dollars available for investment were very limited and I simply did not have time to study the market or be in contact with a broker. So, tried to go with the best managed mutual funds looking toward the longer term and, with the retirement plan, took advantage of income shelters where circumstances enabled such.
As the girls went on to careers we had some discretionary $$, so put some into local low-risk real estate development schemes and some into higher risk private ventures - tried to stay balanced - but never got into the "market" as such. Worked out OK.
Later, as age and eventual retirement became factors, my very stable and low operating cost supplementary retirement vehicle began to offer personal annuities that were were being managed much like the highly successful retirement aspect. So, I plunked much of the yields from earlier ventures into those annuities. Selected a mix of lower yield/lower risk stuff and some medium risk things that seemed to have good growth potential. This worked OK.
Later, it looked like the retirement income would be sufficient and our main interest became where to live in our dotage and how to grow something to leave to the kids. So, we bought a chunk of real estate to live on and I shifted most of the remaining annuity and retirement funds to stock-indexed accounts. With the exception of that sudden market drop a few years ago with eventual recovery, that worked OK. Given any good fortune, the kids will make a buck when this place is sold and we will not have needed to dip into the annuity aspects.
Sorry if this has seemed like a personal ramble, but saw your inquiry and it triggered recall never before assembled into a picture. There are different ways to skin a cat. There was no long-term plan and, of course, nothing was guaranteed. We simply read the circumstances and flew by the seats of our pants. Who knows? It might have gone better with a good broker/advisor using the market venues.
