Invest in real estate or rental properties would be my suggestion. Safer and asset-based with a lower downside risk.

I agree with above. I'd go all in on rentals in a good city with a large college. $200k should get you 20% down on 5-6 places. Leverage the bank for the rest. Cash flow should be $2k/month total if you buy right. Plus the 5-6 places should be worth a million plus in 30 years.

If it were me, I would set up a relatively short DCA schedule (say, weekly over 3 months) to buy into a globally diverse, balanced basket of assets. I wouldn't overweight fixed income with interest rates as low as they are, but I would definitely own enough to be able to make a difference for rebalancing purposes if markets do correct significantly.

It's entirely possible (if not likely) that forward-looking returns will be significantly muted compared to the prior 30 years. In fixed-income, that's all but assured. However, rebalancing between assets over time will help boost your returns. Adding factor tilts can also help. It's not sexy, but it works.

If you're really worried about paperwork, headaches, and other rental property issues, just appropriate a small portion of your cash flow to a property management company or a single property manager that deals with all that stuff as part of their job. It's not that hard to get around. Real estate is still a better investment right now that being in a sideways market as a passive investor. I would still diversify your assets rather than hedging on one specific area. Find a couple good real estate deals to snatch up, get into a couple good ETF's that have a nice long track record of following the major market well, and find a couple other spots that interest you to invest in that are different from those two. Plenty of ways to do it; it just depends on how active you want to be, what your risk tolerance is, and what your timeline is for seeing return on that investment.

Look at an REIT. I owned VGSIX for a while, but I'm sure there are plenty of others.

if you are really wanting to go the rental property route then wait for a dip and then buy. buy cash, refi, buy again, recycle.

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I agree with above. I'd go all in on rentals in a good city with a large college. $200k should get you 20% down on 5-6 places. Leverage the bank for the rest. Cash flow should be $2k/month total if you buy right. Plus the 5-6 places should be worth a million plus in 30 years.

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Who's taking care of all that? Short sided answer in my view.

Wait until January to see the impact of the election and first round of Obamacare penalties and their impacts on the economy. It's too close to not wait.

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I agree with above. I'd go all in on rentals in a good city with a large college. $200k should get you 20% down on 5-6 places. Leverage the bank for the rest. Cash flow should be $2k/month total if you buy right. Plus the 5-6 places should be worth a million plus in 30 years.

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$200K for 20% down equals $1m in properties. I would sure hope they are worth a million in 30 years.

I would take the advice of a superintendent at my company. He built a small commercial property at about 39 years old. A multi tenant property. He pays it off in two years (early 60s), and then he can retire, and make as much or more than he ever did working, about $12k a month. (his mortgage is about $10k)

Multi tenant commercial has several advantages over residential:
Longer contracts (His first tenant he locked in for 7 years, they financed half of their TI, which means they are in for the long haul)
Way less chance of a headache compared to renters (His anchor is a dentist and then has two other professional type tenants)
Way less maintenance it seems.. don't have to paint/ change carpet every couple years like when you swap residents, as well as update kitchens and baths often to make it desirable.

I have a great handyman that fixes the repairs when needed as far as taking care of them. Majority of my tenants have been in place for 4-5 years now. Most directly deposit rent into my bank account or mail it to my office. Cash flow is roughly $375 or more per house and sitting on 16 of them currently. So while they may be some extra work, it is worth the money and returns that come from them. rents can decrease by over 30% in Houston and I would still break even or cash flow a bit. If rents go down 30% and all homes prices go down 30-40% in Houston area.. we are all screwed and out of work anyways! These are long term investments as well. I still work and so does the wife. Most of the loans are all locked in on 30 year fixed rates under 5%.

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I have a great handyman that fixes the repairs when needed as far as taking care of them. Majority of my tenants have been in place for 4-5 years now. Most directly deposit rent into my bank account or mail it to my office. Cash flow is roughly $375 or more per house and sitting on 16 of them currently. So while they may be some extra work, it is worth the money and returns that come from them. rents can decrease by over 30% in Houston and I would still break even or cash flow a bit. If rents go down 30% and all homes prices go down 30-40% in Houston area.. we are all screwed and out of work anyways! These are long term investments as well. I still work and so does the wife. Most of the loans are all locked in on 30 year fixed rates under 5%.

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Solid and well done.
What property value do you typically target ~100-150k?

Find an independent builder or home flipper and provide hard money loans. I get 12% APR with average loan of 6-9 months for $100k+ loans.

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Safer and asset-based with a lower downside risk.

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You must have not been around in the 80's. Or in 2008 in the Sunbelt markets. Real Estate investing is not for the faint of heart. The market can change overnight, and real estate is illiquid so you can't cash out on a dime. You can lose 20-50% of your asset value in a simple congressional pen-stroke, and you probably wouldn't be aware of it because you don't have a legal/political team watching out for you. It has happened before, and will happen again.

There is credit risk also added to the risk profile, especially when you leverage up to 80% LTV. If you've ever had a tenant stop paying you because they lost their job (ask some landlords in Houston), you know it can take time to actually evict them, and you wont recover that lost rent or the eviction costs. If you are levered up, then by that time you are upside down on cash flow and are feeding the deal from your personal income. Sure you are amortizing your debt, but converting liquid cash to illiquid real estate equity isn't always the brightest move, despite what Dave Ramsey says.

In many good markets house values have outpaced income growth, which in the short term is good for single-family landlords, however in the long term it indicates a coming price correction.. Since real estate has a locational element to its value that other investments don't have, and it is doubtful that you will buy property outside of your MSA, so you are extremely un-diversified and over invested in a local market. Again, ask people in Houston who bought 6 months before oil's free-fall.

Also, if $200k is a lot of money to you, then I doubt you are going to qualify for $800k of new mortgages out of the gate with QM requirements.

Real estate is a business, not an investment. Investments sit on the shelf and earn, while a business requires work. For sure you can make a lot of money, but to say its "safer and less downside risk" is asinine.