Elvira

What about investing in equities direct rather than via funds, particularly high-yield stock in big, 'safe' companies (utilities, retailers, banks, commercial property companies etc)?

The logic being that these companies have been around a long time and (barring disaster) will still be around in 20-30 years time, provide essential services that people need and thus are likely to at least maintain their value and probably grow a bit too, and pay high dividends.

And of course the costs are much lower than with funds, particularly for those who can resist the urge the trade unless there is a pressing reason to do so.

Giantaxe

Or buy a set of ETFs including those that follow foreign stock/bond indices and also commodities. Good idea to hedge against a weakening dollar, imo, by making sure you're invested in non-dollar assets as well.

An advantage of ETFs is that they tend to be a lot more tax efficient than mutual funds in that they don't have to distribute capital gains every year. Of course, this advantage is lost in a tax-deferred account, which is why I tend to invest in ETFs and individual stocks in taxable accounts. The downside of ETFs is that you have to pay commission to buy/sell just like an ordinary stock. So if you're saving relatively small amounts on a regular basis into a retirement account, the buying costs can add up.