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Index fund is the way to go for many people. In fact, it is the suggestion William Sharpe gave to (pre-IPO) Google employees.

http://www.sanfranmag.com/print/node/3368

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Yeah, but be careful, most index funds have gone down recently, suffering equity losses in the 10-15% range for the last year, before inflation. Just take a look at the Vanguard funds [1], which have one of the best reputations though. Of course, index funds simply followed the market downwards. Long term, they're still a great, trouble-free investment.

I would also consider buying Berkshire Hathaway stock. Expensive, B-series at about 4K, but worth it, again, long term. Slightly better returns too.

Even better, do not listen to me (IANA financier), but read Phill Greenspan's excellent investing advice [2].

[1] https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsIndexOnly [2] http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/money

The fact that index funds have gone down recently should not cause you to be careful. If you believe the long term value is still there, the best time to buy is in fact after they've suffered losses.

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