Lots of useful advice here. Adding my $0.02, I’ve made the case here that in most situations, it’s best to be 100% invested in equities until you’re a few years from retirement. This is because your ability to earn behaves much more like a bond than like equities, allowing you to keep your portfolio 100% in equities without excessive risk.

Once you get much closer to retirement, say within 5 years, reducing exposure to equities works better. However, if you’re in the fortunate situation of having such a large portfolio that 4%/year is more than you need to supplement your Social Security benefits, you can stay 100% in equities, and live off Social Security plus dividends without selling any shares.

If you manage to do that, you really don’t care if your shares drop 50% in value, as long as the dollars thrown off in dividends don’t drop too low. That’s because you’re not forced to sell shares at a loss, and those shares will ultimately recover their value and grow further.