in a similar boat. millennial and i own a place im interested in converting into a rental property and then i want to buy another property so i can own multiple investment properties around town.
for the most part ive stuck with the S&P 500 since graduating college in 2008 and bought a first home in 2015 and it looks like i can cash flow it if i convert it into a rental.
Things are def shaky right now in stocks but I am still sticking to my holdings in S&P 500 index through Vanguard, maxing out ROTH, not selling a dime, and i decided to buy more AAPL today seeing everyone is so fearful . The price to earnings ratio is looking pretty good to me right now - of course I do not know if it has hit the bottom yet.
For the most part I stick to Vanguard VTSAX and Vanguard S&P admiral index funds.
But I'm hoping to get a good downpayment together for a second property.
Experience with critics (why it pays to stick to your guns and invest for the LONG TERM):
1) in 2009 my millennial friends were cashing out their stock accounts and sometimes 401k accounts if they were laid off after first job out of college. No one seemed to have any money so I guess that was why. I lived at my parents and left all my money in stocks including NKE (Nike) and it did very well by 2016.
2) in 2015-2016 millennial friends told me stocks were awesome but that real estate and housing was in a bubble and stay the heck away. i ran the numbers with a 3.5% 30 year fixed mortgage and it looked conservative v. rental income potential so i pulled the trigger and very happy with my low locked in fixed mortgage payment as rental income potential continues to increase. While RedFin says I made 100K if I were to sell now I really dont care about price fluctuations as I do not plan to sell and all I care about is the mortgage payment fixed vs. what I can get for rental income.
3) in 2017 all the millennials told me to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and other names since it is quick money but I listened to Warren Buffett and stayed away from that and kept piling my extra savings in Vanguard admiral index funds. While my index funds have gone down quite a bit lately like the OP, I am not going to change what I am doing.
Warren Buffett: "I don't know when to buy stocks, but I know whether to buy stocks."
Warren Buffett: "Bitcoin is worthless artificial gold."
Charlie Munger: "Bitcoin is rat poison/turds."