Stocks + Bonds?

[bpm]

Hello smart people,

I've been investing for several years in index funds and given that I got into it around 2009 the return has been rather nice indeed.  However, as we hit market highs and I now have an additional fairly-large quantity of cash to invest, I've been considering "balancing" my portfolio.  My concern is that that I may be abandoning the whole concept of investing proposed on this site- you either believe the market is long term going up or you don't. 

Do any of you do something approaching balancing in this very traditional way?  If so, do you have funds you like?

[Frankies Girl]

I follow jcollins' portfolio advice - still all index funds, just adding in a bit of a bond index and REIT index for a safety margin. These additions just smooth out the bumps in the road and are really only necessary if you are close to or in early retirement and want a bit more stability due to risk aversion.

Both the bond and REIT aren't doing hot this past year, but I'm comfortable with my lion's share holding of the stock index doing the heavy lifting while those hang out and goof off a little (since they won't really pull in decent returns unless we go into a inflation/deflation type of situation).

http://jlcollinsnh.com/2011/06/14/what-we-own-and-why-we-own-it/

[lauren_knows]

Are you asking if you should invest in a bond fund, or something else? A lot of people on here use a Stocks/Bonds allocation to mitigate risk and smooth out the "down times" of the market.  It's all a personal preference.