<prompt> Human: Hi, I recently hit a personal savings goal and Im looking to put some of my saved money into a better place than holding it as cash. I have more than enough for a six month emergency fund, have already maxed out my Roth IRA for 2013 and 2014, and contribute the maximum amount to my 401k. Im currently holding about 40k in cash.Id like to put my extra cash into index funds, since I dont have any short-term items Im saving for and dont plan to need the money soon. However, the market seems to be at a historical high, and the Federal Reserve beginning its tapering of asset buying seems likely to cause a dip. This leads me to think it might not be a great time to get into the market.Additionally, Im unsure of how to allocate my potential investments. Im already following a lazy portfolio for my Roth IRA, consisting of about 40 in the SP 500, 40 in the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund, and 20 in the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund. If I were to do the same funds in my non-IRA account, I feel like Id be doubling my risk...but I also feel like my risk is diversified enough to be essentially a total market risk, so I dont know if that can be avoided?tl;dr: I want to reduce my cash holdings and I think index funds might be a good way to do this, but Im not sure if this is a good time to buy into the stock market or which funds to choose. Any thoughts?  <response>: Is this a bad time to invest in index funds?If youre investing for the long term then it is a great time to invest in index funds, as its always been. You cannot time the market, and any attempt to do so will likely be an expensive mistake. 