Subject: Re: Why I started using ETFs
As for the answer to when to start betting against the market, it came from Mungofitch. Thanks to him, I discovered $NAHL, or the Nasdaq 52w New Highs - New Lows. That thing went negative in November 2021 and that would have been a pretty good time to start selling stocks.

My goal now is to at least eliminate negative years with the help of $NAHL and then maybe make money in any market with those ETFS.

Is this perhaps more of a mechanical investing approach than indexing, or have I just not fully understood given my very vanilla approach to investing?

I have started to look more closely at indexing for multiple reasons. The first is simplification of our accounts. I have not been able to get anyone in my family interested in investing, and we need a hit by a bus strategy in the event something suddenly happens to me without warning, (like getting hit by a bus!) I need to autopilot our finances so that DH or the kids could take over if need be. Alzheimer's runs deep in my family, so I also want to protect our assets from myself should those signs subtly manifest without true recognition. I've had enough experience with family to know that the beginning signs tend to be well masked by those impacted, but if they understand what I am doing, it will be easier for them to see if I am off kilter.

The third is risk reduction. At a certain point conservation of principal over time is necessary, particularly since now retired. We could stick our assets into interest bearing accounts earning 2% and never even touch principal, but not making my money work for me is contrary to my nature, so a simplified approach with moderate risk via indexing could be a good plan. We neither need to be aggressive in our investments, nor perhaps should we be, because the result of losing much of our assets would be catastrophic.

And selfishly, I would like to 'retire.' Will probably keep a small portfolio of individual stocks just for fun, but to keep all of our assets in a concentrated portfolio of 10-15 stocks puts too much pressure on me to chose the right stock. I want this to be more fun than work.

Am leaning towards equal weight indexes, like QQQE and RSP, with supplementation via individual stock picks. I also consider my recent BRK.B acquisition to be more of a value index than a single stock, and have limit orders to buy more should it go down below my initial position. Have just started looking at the other QQQs, like S and J, needing to get started in serious contemplation and avoiding analysis paralysis!

Am currently rather cash heavy after taking cash value for a couple of pensions, and having bailed out of all bond funds before interest rates started to rise. Am in the process of repositioning our assets after taking them back from a financial planner, who rather messed up my aggressive portfolio that was too volatile for marital harmony. DH finally saw the light that the FP was not good for us, and I have learned my lesson about volatility not being digestible by all. Hoping a compromise can be found here, but as of yet have no real plan formulated.

Very interested in suggestions for retirees in their early 60's, as well as suggestions for how to formulate an autopilot for a young man in his mid 20's.

IP