Virginia,
- I don't have a specific fund to recommend, I don't know anything about the Contrarian fund except what I just read on Morningstar. But, your idea of allocating your eggs into different baskets to help protect against risk is generally a good idea. As you know, there are lots of asset types out there (foreign stocks, small US stocks, "value stocks", "growth stocks", bonds, etc). All of these have risks, but often some are going up while others go down. If you concentrate in a single category (large US stocks, which is what Contraian Fund holds) you may do great--but you may also take a bigger decline than you need to.
You might consider adding a fund that has exposure to different types of assets since you already have some holdings in Contrarian Fund. In addition, you might look for a fund with low costs--again, this fund doesn't have exceptionally high costs, but many index funds can be bought that have expenses less than .2 per year. The 3/4ths of one percent difference may not sound like a lot, but it is $750 in your case in the very first year--and every year thereafter. Plus, you lose the compounding of that extra money that is taken out---over several decades this is HUGE.
If my sister said she wanted to invest $100K within the next few weeks and didn't have a firm idea of how she wanted to allocate her assets for the long haul, I'd tell her to put it all into the Vanguard Targeted Retirement Fund for the year closest to the year she'd start needing the money (e.g Target Retirement 2045). This fund is already balanced across a lot of asset classes US stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, etc). There's no "perfect fund" but this a low-cost fund and would give her time to learn more before she commits to something else. And, if she never touched it until retirement I think she'd still be well ahead of 90% of her peers.
gindie's dollar cost averaging idea is advocated by a lot of folks. This assures that you don't jump into the market with al your money just before it takes a dive, and if the market goes up and down you'll be buying more shares when they are cheaper. If this helps you feel better about the investment, then do it. While studies have shown that investors do slightly better, on average, by having their money in the market rather than investing it slowly over a long time, that's strictly an average (and won't make you feel much better if the market tanks the day after you invest your money). Again, if it were my sister I'd recommend that she buy in all at once rather DCA. If she wanted to DCA, I'd recommend she do it over approx 6 months rather than be out of the market for longer. The right answer on this lump-sum vs DCA thing won't be known except in retrospect, do what makes you most comfortable.
-I'm assuming you've already done the other smart stuff--paid off high-cost credit balances, you're already taking full advantage of any company match you might have in a 401k, TSP, 403B, etc. I'd do those things first, then an IRA, then non-tax deferred investing.
Best of luck!
