If you invest in risk ventures, consider if you have enough money in the venture to bounce back after a crash. The fees in your investment keep taking its tole despite a huge market drop.  And small funds might not have time to recover before they are depleted by costs on top of the crash losses. Also, I think that if your self managing, be honest, are you able to spend the necessary time monitoring whatever funding your in? At basic, put a portion in savings so you have access perhaps, and the other portion into CDs I'd your self managing, have a small estate, are risk adverse, need access potentially to your savings, and don't have lots of time for sophisticated buying at this time. Maybe take a summer class at a community college about investing in real estate/tax buys, bonds, and dabbling in foreclosure purchases creating a investment management and buying period each week/month/quarter as fits you and your investments starting relatively small until your good at it. When you have lots and lots of money, you can decide if your ready to put a large chunk (enough to spring back in a serious crash) into high risk markets like the stock market than you can find a company that can spread the funds at the risk level you like.