Index funds in the morning, index funds in the evening, index funds at supper time. When you invest in the stock market, you can get index funds any time!
That's my mantra.
I have received individual stocks from my employers over the years, but I've never held them. I sell them pretty much as soon as I can because I see their cash equivalent as part of my overall compensation and believe I'm better off handling that money on my own. So far this strategy has worked entirely in my favor. For instance, my current employer IBM is a behemoth that isn't going away any time soon, but its stock has been on a slow downward slide for a long time, and the dividends likely don't make up the difference.
I only invest in the stock market as a retirement vehicle, and my investments reflect that. I've seen too many folks burned on individual stocks, and I'm not really a gambling man. Years ago I read about
John "Jack" Bogle (inventor of the index fund and founder of Vanguard) and I decided to go all-in with index funds. I basically follow his
three-fund portfolio advice with most of my money in
VTSAX (total US stock market),
VTIAX (total international market), and
VBTLX (total bond market), though I still have some in
VFIAX (S&P 500) which is where I invested the majority before I discovered VTSAX. I invest in my three main funds
roughly to mimic a managed target date fund, but I do it manually to get much lower expense ratios.
The big index funds aren't as exciting or potentially profitable as juggling individual stocks, but I like them precisely because they're more reliable, cheaper (in terms of fees and expense ratios), and don't require active management on my part. It's a very "set it and forget it" mindset, and I never have to stress over it. Plus, since the "total market" index tracks, well, the
whole market, it only falls when pretty much everything falls. If you believe the US and society as a whole will keep investing in the stock markets, you only "lose" with this strategy if everyone loses, at which point we all probably have bigger problems anyway. Using the "three-fund portfolio" stretegy, though, further reduces your risk by diversifying across bonds and international markets.
Whenever the major indices like S&P 500 and NASDAQ fall more than half a percent in a day, I check to see if I have any spare cash above my monthly budgets, and if markets are still down before the 4PM close, I buy. Buy low; sell when it's time to retire.
Other than that, I have my IRA and my wife's IRA set to automatically buy every month to max out the annual contribution limits.