We have acquired a large sum from the sale of a home and want to invest it responsibly. Our long term return expectation is a mere 6.8%/yr, selected by looking at the worst 20yr stretch of the SP500 and figuring that we can't do much worse than that. Sure, we will likely get closer to 9% but, for the purposes of retirement planning, we use 6.8%. And yes, we'll diversify into other stuff like REITs and Beanie Babies and NASCAR collector plates.
So, with the conservative return expectation in mind, does it make sense to push all the chips in now and just let it ride in ETrade or phase it in over a year or three? Once it is in, it's in. Maybe we will rebalance it from time to time but we won't take distributions.
We currently max a Roth 401(k) with a 5% match, max a non-matching Roth 457(b), and are subject to a non-trivial mandatory pension contribution that may or may not exist in when we retire in 25yrs. We don't factor in social security at all. We have also concluded that we have zero interest in managing a rental property.
