Fortunately the other shoulder has wife, and wife can be a lot meaner than the devil if you piss her off.
My wife doesn't like my all the shares of MO I hold in our taxable account, but then I show her my YoC (>13%) on the first lot I bought in late 2008 and the dividend checks that roll in and she gets over it...
But my choice to go all stocks (except one mutual fund: LEXCX) was more driven to develop monthly income without having to deplete principal or appreciated shares to do it. I've got 15 companies, divided into groups of 5 on quarterly schedules, that I buy shares in on a monthly basis that's pretty well diversified, reasonably non-cyclical, and has a blended yield between 3.5-4% right now (twice what I'd get from an S&P500 Index Fund):
Group 1 (January, April, July, October):
Altria, Philip Morris International, Coca-Cola (except for the January check, which is paid in December), Kraft, Union Pacific
Group 2 (February, May, August, November):
Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, AT&T, Abbott Labs
Group 3 (March, June, September, December
Emerson Electric, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, IBM
I know it's easy to criticize the original list at the beginning of the thread as "cherry-picking" winners, but if it's obvious that certain industries have an established set of advantages that limits competition (railroads, telecoms, consumer brands, IP rights for Pharma), it seems to me to be a pretty straight forward task to build a rock solid portfolio. The youngest company in my portfolio is McDonald's (about 60 years), with the oldest being P&G (started as a candle/soap company in the early-mid 1800s); I think it's safe to say all will be around for a while because they make products or provide services that are essential to both the local and global economy. Moreover, all are listed in the US and have to comply with US securities laws, which while not perfect, at least allow a casual investor to review balance sheets and cash flow statements to watch for any abrupt changes in corporate performance in a relatively easy manner. I say if you're willing to be diligent, go for it with a concentrated stock portfolio, or at least go for a 50/50 mix of stocks/funds.