What is your sense of the stock market?

@Ashlynn For people, like you with a long term investment horizon, I agree. I am a proponent of the saying that "time in the market" is much more important than "timing the market". At my age the calculus is a little riskier, if you consider that in the absolute worse case scenario, the Crash of 1929, the US stock market did not recover its previous highs until 1951, 22 years later. But even so, if you had invested in the Early 1930s, you would have done very well.

And I think mutual funds are a great idea unless you are prepared to invest a great deal of time in selecting your individual stock investments.

@PowerofStories age obviously plays a factor but even a retiree at 65 you likely have 15-20 years of investing you can do. Most people don’t cash out 100% of their 401k when they retire, instead living off the gains.

@Ashlynn True. But it all depends on what happens during the down cycle. To use a scenario that is probably more extreme than what lies ahead, from 1929 to 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined from roughly 375 to 50. So if something like that were to happen today, even if you were fortunate enough to be a 60 year old with $750K saved just before the crash to last you for the next 20-25 years of your life, you might be pretty unhappy at age 64 with only $100K left to support you for the remaining 15-20 years ahead of you.

Of course this is a purposely extreme scenario, as it ignores that fact that most people don't invest 100% in stocks and there is social security, etc.