Indexitis: The nagging fear that too much of your net worth is invested in the S&P 500, and too much of that is invested in five exuberantly priced stocks.

The affliction is becoming more common. The popular index has 28% of its value in Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Meta Platforms (i.e., Facebook). This is twice the top-five concentration level the index has had historically.

Herewith are five cures for indexitis, ranging from a modest tweak to your choice of stock index fund to a dramatic move into one very interesting bond.

Index investing is not necessarily a bad idea, and the market is not necessarily acting irrationally in putting high price tags on fast-growing tech firms. It is a tribute to the success of passive investing, to the investment company founded by the late John Bogle and to the popularity of artificial intelligence chips that we have a fund with a $107 billion holding in one stock. That’s the Vanguard S&P 500 fund’s position in Nvidia.

But history tells us that mighty fortresses crumble. Forty years ago, the top three U.S. companies in market value were IBM, Exxon and General Electric. Their locations in today’s 500 are at positions 34, 14 and 26.

Here are five ways to take a step back from the S&P 500. Important assumption: You’re rebalancing inside a tax-deferred account. In a taxable........

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