1. No, it's just something that has happened. 2. Any level of active management would make an index fund not an index fund. You'd be going to trying to pick th

1. No, it's just something that has happened. 2. Any level of active management would make an index fund not an index fund. You'd be going to trying to pick the best-performing stocks, which is not what an index fund tries to do (capture the overall movements of the market). 3. The general advice is to have approximately a 65/25/10 split between SP500/international/extended market funds. You can adjust as desired. 4. Stock index funds are great for long-term investments, not so much for shorter ones. You can look at bond funds as well. If you have a good amount already (>100k maybe) you can schedule a free discussion with an advisor at places like Fidelity/Vanguard/CS and have them run you through the basics.