The 1970's are a good illustration of a tough US market. Bear markets in 1968-1970, 1973-1974, 1976-1978, and then in 1981-1982. We didn't have a bear market again until 2000-2002 so many younger investors have a rosy picture in their mind about the consistency of equity returns over shorter horizons (like under 10 years). Hell, I forget exactly when the Dow broke the previous record from 1929 but I believe it was in the late 1950's.
From the original poster I take away the desire to preserve capital and simply maximize his return on it. If you know the timeframe you can invest in a CD. There are also money market accounts and short-term govt bonds (with rising interest rates I'm not sure you want to hold longer term bonds at this point as the value will drop during a rate hike despite constant interest and you'll take a loss when you sell before maturity). Unfortunately, larger return potential generally goes hand in hand with volatility so you'll need more time on your side to ride out any possible short/mid term bumps. I'm sure somebody will tell you to trade or something but if you are making this type of post you are illequipped to attempt to outperform the market (risk adjusted basis) on your own research and supperior knowledge - something many professional investors fail to do over full market cycles.
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