> Perhaps I sound too harsh, but I simply fail to understand how all these people thought that holding 6 figure amounts in a single stock was a good idea? Inde

> Perhaps I sound too harsh, but I simply fail to understand how all these people thought that holding 6 figure amounts in a single stock was a good idea? Indeed. But yet people in this thread are advising moving it all to just a single index fund. While index funds are somewhat diversified many suffer from over-investment into specific industries like tech. If the .COM bubble burst again tomorrow several of the most popular index funds with be hit hard... For example, look at the popular Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, 20% in Technology, and 20% in financial, but if you dig into the financial portfolio you'd realize that a pop in tech would also sink many of the investment companies in financial too. I guess what I am saying is, an index fund is better than a single company holding, but it isn't a broadly diversified portfolio. If you want a diversified portfolio it will cost you, since many of the alternatives don't perform as well (e.g. international index funds, small-cap, etc).