You need to forget about timing the market that is mostly a short-term investment thing. If you are only going to keep the money in for 1-3 years then yes you want to time the market for certain stocks and sectors. There are stocks that perform very well in a bear market but perform very poorly in a bull market. If you are investing long-term I would go with whatever makes you comfortable in investing in. If you are not comfortable in investing in foreign companies then don't do it. I would definitely use Vanguard or any other company like Vanguard for this type of an investment. Personally I don't like FA's as they normally just take advantage of people who know very little of the market and throw big words around to get a sale. I would go 70% domestic, 20% international, 5% precious metals and 5% bonds/cash. Bonds should only be invested in when you are closer to retirement if you are not over the age of 50 then there is no reason to have 10% of your assets being taken up by bonds. You are just wasting earning potential with the money just sitting in bonds.