Just Stocks?
Mostly...
Disclaimer / Disclosure long Frec, VTI, ILS, and BOXX
It is okay to have all of your long-term assets in a low cost and tax efficient basket of diversified assets. After $10 million, there are somewhat better options, but for anywhere from $100k-10 million, my favorite is a long/short direct index such as Frec’s Russell 1000 L/S index. It has performed well, charges low fees, and is far more tax efficient than any ETF or index fund. It is all you need. If you don’t love stock picking, this gives you passive exposure; if you do love stock picking this can hedge your picks.
My donor advised fund (DAF) at Daffy is also 100% in equities. It is invested in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares (VTI), up >800% since launch and charging just $300 for every $1 million of assets. In order to maximize after tax value, it is important to donate your most appreciated securities to your DAF. Daffy has a custom liquidation tool that keeps you in control of how donated securities are treated. This can avoid the type of fire sales that donating on other DAF platforms can trigger.
Everyone should have some passive exposure such as a direct index for retirement and a donor advised fund for tax efficient philanthropy. Not everyone needs anything else. But if you want to make a bond or cash allocation, my favorite choices are Brookmont Catastrophic Bond ETF (ILS) for bonds and Alpha Architect 1-3 Month Box ETF (BOXX) for cash. You can put a million dollars of each in Webull to get a $40k match bonus netting an above market yield on both.
Owning physical real estate directly can be more trouble than it is worth unless you scale it up enough to have great property managers and other staff. It doesn’t scale down well, tends to have lots of unexpected costs and problems, and nearly always involves litigation. Never end up in court with less than seven and ideally eight figures at stake. I’ve seen very successful people get so mad at renters that they ended up in court over four digit squabbles, which is a silly waste of time.
If you really want real estate exposure as a diversifier, fine, but just put some money in a private REIT such as Roots. It is likely to compound as well as doing it yourself with far less hassle. I invested in both the Roots REIT and in in their limited offerings on individual projects. So far they have all worked out well. Currently accredited investors can participate in a limited offering targeting a ~15% gross return over the next eight months. There’s ~$5 million of space left; minimum allocations are $10k.
Caveat
The tax harvesting benefit of direct indexing works best in volatile markets; in smooth markets there is less advantage.
Conclusion
Stocks might be all you need for long-term investing, especially if you invest early and in a low cost and tax efficient way. Direct indexing offers the most tax efficiency.
TL; DR
Own stocks for yourself and your philanthropy. Boost your yield on bonds or cash by 2%. Invest in REITs instead of physical real estate.