The market is unpredictable and goes through swings . If you are investing for retirementover a long horizonthen you should be able to stomach swings as conventional wisdom says the market will eventually bounce back . A two year investing horizon is very short in the investing world . Sure , you could put it in an Index fund , but if at the end of two years you are down 10 %, how is that going to make you feelchange your plans ? If the answer is that would really mess up my house plans then you should probably look at lowrisk investments bonds ? , but they aren ' t really going to provide ' growth . ' Beating inflation would probably be your highwater mark there . If you lose money after the two years and your thought is that is fine , I ' ll just leave it and wait until it comes back and maybe more then we can talk more about the equity markets and Index funds .