Here Dr. Sheikh explains what to actually buy, starting with the statistic that about 95 percent of stock pickers fail to beat the market over decades. She recommends index funds and ETFs, which bundle many companies together and tend to outperform individual stocks over the long term at low cost. Using a $10,000 example, she suggests a split of $4,000 into an S&P 500 fund, $3,000 into a growth fund, $2,000 into an international fund, and $1,000 into a money market fund. She describes the growth portion as the aggressive piece that can rise and fall quickly and must be held through downturns. The money market portion serves as security and dry powder to buy more during market dips.