This is a question to which there is a Right Answer. That answer is low-cost index funds.
Your options:
1) Invest in a Vanguard target retirement date fund. They will manage a portfolio comprised of ETFs for you, and also change the mix over time, in return for a fee.
2) Invest in Wealthfront or a similar "robo advisor" (Charles Schwab also has one), who will manage a portfolio of low-cost ETFs for you, in return for a fee.
3) Self-manage a portfolio of low-cost ETFs. You should probably not do this. Your decisionmaking for it will be strictly worse than a machine's.
If you feel the need to know why index funds are the Right Answer, read A Random Walk Down Wall Street. This is the canonical answer among Bogleheads, a group of devotees of the guy who invented low-cost index funds. (He made Vanguard from the ground up.) If you want other book recommendations, they have several: http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_re...
Most of the consequential decisions for you are not going to be in what to invest in (because you will, being rational and aware that you cannot out-compete the market with any degree of predictability, choose low-cost index funds) but rather a) saving a generous amount every year, b) making especially sure to max out tax-beneficial retirement contributions, and c) not panicking and selling your low-cost index funds on a day like today.
If you enjoy playing the stock market not because you want to maximize your return (again, low-cost index funds) but because that sounds like a source of fun, ask me again in, oh, 2 weeks.
Your options:
1) Invest in a Vanguard target retirement date fund. They will manage a portfolio comprised of ETFs for you, and also change the mix over time, in return for a fee.
2) Invest in Wealthfront or a similar "robo advisor" (Charles Schwab also has one), who will manage a portfolio of low-cost ETFs for you, in return for a fee.
3) Self-manage a portfolio of low-cost ETFs. You should probably not do this. Your decisionmaking for it will be strictly worse than a machine's.
If you feel the need to know why index funds are the Right Answer, read A Random Walk Down Wall Street. This is the canonical answer among Bogleheads, a group of devotees of the guy who invented low-cost index funds. (He made Vanguard from the ground up.) If you want other book recommendations, they have several: http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_re...
Most of the consequential decisions for you are not going to be in what to invest in (because you will, being rational and aware that you cannot out-compete the market with any degree of predictability, choose low-cost index funds) but rather a) saving a generous amount every year, b) making especially sure to max out tax-beneficial retirement contributions, and c) not panicking and selling your low-cost index funds on a day like today.
If you enjoy playing the stock market not because you want to maximize your return (again, low-cost index funds) but because that sounds like a source of fun, ask me again in, oh, 2 weeks.