They say they like this idea of a "money printing machine" of yours, so they want you to stick all of their money in ETFs because they were told to by Suze Orman.

I never said that you should put ALL of your money into the stock market. That is a downright stupid thing to do.

Just about every investor who knows his trade has always said that a reasonably diversified asset mix is key to reducing volatility and enhancing returns.

That means a good solid mix of hard cash, stocks, bonds, some real estate, precious metals, and a very small number of speculative investments. For a young man in his mid-20s to mid-30s, that would look something like:

20% cash, 50% stocks, 20% bonds, 5% real estate, 5% speculative.

As you get older and closer to retirement, the stock percentage should go down and the cash and bonds percentages should go up.

Some joker really should create Casino Industry ETFs, BTW. 🙂

Seek, and thou shalt find…

They say they like this idea of a "money printing machine" of yours, so they want you to stick all of their money in ETFs because they were told to by Suze Orman.

Honest Abe's been sticking it to them despite gains in the carry trade, so they're hoping you can help them print their way back to prosperity again.

Some joker really should create Casino Industry ETFs, BTW. 🙂

Yeah, could do. Might take a while, but it's a distinct possibility.

Also, I'm expecting a lot of trouble in the upcoming decades, being in the US. How would you change your investment behavior if you had less than 20 years to capitalize on the US stock market?

Change my allocation away from US-based securities and markets, for one thing. The major reason why the US is the world's premier destination for capital is because of its transparency and strict regulations concerning corporate financial disclosures. Various countries and regions all have their own laws concerning corporate disclosures; the US is generally agreed to be the most transparent and easy to understand. This makes picking individual securities in the US much easier than in, say, southeast Asia or the Middle East or especially Eastern Europe.

That said – it is possible to invest in index funds that simply track a big basket of stocks from different parts of the world. That is my recommended course of action, if you're willing to accept higher volatility in the returns as a result.

Note also that this implies investing in foreign bonds, not US Treasuries. I believe that US Treasuries will face a massive crisis of confidence within 20 years, due to all of the impossible promises made to various parts of the US population. The USA will default, one way or another. This means that alternative high-quality bond offerings have to be looked at very carefully for stability and yield, but these are hard to find in international bond markets.

The data you use suggests the minimum time for investment is 10 years. Assuming an investment for that period, would you still use dollar-cost averaging?

I would recommend DCA for any time horizon greater than 5 years. Anything less than 5 years requires a speculator's mindset, not an investor's. DCA is simply the best way available to smooth out one's returns and stabilise a portfolio in the face of significant market volatility.