[sammyg2]

In the big picture, you will make far more money in equities than you stand to looose, and far more than you would make in less risky investments.
BUT if you are retired, it's a good idea to be a little more conservative.

I look at it this way:
If you need to live off that money for the next five years, you can't afford a big drop and should be investing in a guaranteed annuity or something even though in the long run, that's a poor investment.

Personally, I only had about 25% in equities (until last week) even though that was way too conservative for my situation.
I had enough in cash to sustain short-term, and could looose about half and still survive long-term. But I really hate loosing money.
I'm more willing to pass up any gains just so I don't hafta watch the balance go down. At all. Hate that.

Assuming you don't need the money to live on for the next several years, the ex-perts say the smart move would be to pick good solid long term equity investments. Say 40 or 50% in stocks both domestic and intl, and the rest in bond indexes (foreign and domestic) and a little in cash.

Now having said that, I'm on the sidelines watching to see if the bubble pops.
Even though they say that trying to time the market is a fool's errand.

Plus I'm worried about being so heavily into bonds when inflation eventually kicks in.