Ricky - Woops. Sorry for the newb mistake of posting in an inappropriate section. Oh well... here we are anyway. :)
Thanks for the response, it has provoked some thinking.
The sum in question is $75k. In the last couple of months I've finally gotten educated on Mustachianism and portfolio balancing, read the Four Pillars, Intelligent Investor, Random Walk, and all of Bogleheads. I have allocated my retirement accounts into the classic 80/20 (stocks/bonds) with a "core 4" allocation, with 8% of that in REITs.
I'm still green though, and I don't quite know how to respond to the time horizon question, so thanks for the nudge to figure that out. All I can say is, this $75 was a windfall of cash, so I want to put it to work effectively. My organic cash-flow savings already flows into a Roth 401k (just recently started allocating to the Roth option - already have sizable amount in traditional 401k and IRA) and after the IRS max, I spill over into a taxable account. The 80/20 allocation stretches across all of that, with the bonds and REITs exclusively in the tax-advantaged IRA and 401ks.
When you speak of "market at all time high", are you referring specifically to the stock market? I'm not sure the real estate market is any different, but I've not spent the time researching. In either case, isn't this market-timing stuff frowned upon? Not to be dogmatic about that, but the "efficient market" hypothesis rings quite true to me - especially after having JUST read the books mentioned above.
When you talk about investing in real estate, are you suggesting REITs or actual real estate? I'd lean more to REITs at the moment, but I could be convinced otherwise.