I'm just an Old Buzzard, so you can take this for what it's worth. Currently all assets seem overvalued on the fundamentals. Nonetheless, you need to accumulate assets for your retirement. But I would advise first getting out of debt except for your house. In this environment, there is no surer thing than paying off any credit card or student load or car loan debt. This will free up cash later when assets are priced much cheaper (which I think they will be). Having said that, I began accumulating at about your age and at the time I thought maybe $500,000 would do it. I did not understand how the financial geniuses were restructuring our economy by overleveraging and pushing paper as is it were gold. Had I known, I would have bought a lot of gold at less than $300 an ounce and less of the market in the late 90s. Oh, well. Make allowances for what you cannot know by saving more than you think you can. If you don't have a good pension, a half-million depreciating dollars doesn't make for the retirement of your dreams. I think you're wise to go with the Roth. You can find easy access to foreign currencies via EverBank (I'm not into it, maybe because it didn't exist when I started investing. Plus, I don't know how to properly evaluate relative asset-claim instruments). Gold now is pricey but still the ultimate stable value fund. No more than 10 percent of a prudent portfolio ought to be in gold in my opinion. Easiest way to invest is with the many ETF funds. You might want to consider GoldMoney.com. Fees are high on gold in general and it produces no income. Stocks based on their P/E ratios are probably overvalued but getting resonable. Still, the faltering economy is likely to hit stocks hard and you must consider the possiblity that a Total Market or S&P 500 index (the cheapest way to invest) could lose considerable value. Nonetheless, you need stocks because this is the most dynamic, most resilient asset you can buy. My opinion. I'm just an Old Buzzard. Bonds are not likely to make you money. Interest rates are almost certain to go up along with inflation. Nonetheless, you must also buy bonds because they can reduce market risk. Safe government bonds can be bought directly for your Roth with as little as $1,000 apiece at TresuryDirect.gov. Not wise to go very long at the moment, I think. Bond funds have certain drawbacks but a bond index, with Vanguard, say, have very low costs and that's what you want in an income fund. Managed funds are supposed to protect you in down markets but history suggests that they don't. You can get stocks and bonds together in a balanced fund. Balanced funds force you to pay high costs on the income portion of your portfolio, but do consider the very consistent performance of Vanguard's Wellington fund. It's fees are around 30 basis points. Why pay more?