My personal planned allocation: 15% hand picked dividend stocks ( stuff like SXL, BPL ) 40% dividend stock mutual fund ( DVY) 30% long term bond fund 10% gold 5

My personal planned allocation: 15% hand picked dividend stocks ( stuff like SXL, BPL ) 40% dividend stock mutual fund ( DVY) 30% long term bond fund 10% gold 5% treasury money market fund or CD's DVY pays out a 3.9% dividend yield. Dividends will rise as nominal national income rises. The "general price level" will rise with national income minus productivity growth. In other words, if you put 100% in DVY you will be able to get an annual return of 3.9% that will rise with inflation. If productivity grows at 1% a year, then you will effectively get a return of 4.9% a year in terms of purchasing power. You might wait on buying any long term bonds though, until interest rates return to any sort of normalcy. (disclaimer: I'm not a professional, use at own risk, etc. etc.)