If you’ve been investing for a while, you may think your money is working. But you might be surprised by what you find, and your discovery could lead you to take action.

How can you know if an investment is “working” hard enough? Just look at the results.

If you own Treasury securities and Certificates of Deposit (CDs), you will, in all likelihood, preserve your principal, and you’ll receive regular income in the form of interest payments. At the same time, these investments have drawbacks. For example, if the rate of inflation is greater than the interest rate you receive on your Treasuries or CDs, you will actually lose purchasing power. So, in that sense, Treasuries and CDs are not working hard enough for you in key areas. And that’s why you may not want to “overload” your portfolio with these kinds of vehicles.

Stocks work the hardest

Unquestionably, stocks are the hardest-working financial assets available. Over the past seven decades, stocks have significantly outperformed all other asset classes. From 1926 through 2003, stocks, as represented by the S & P 500, returned, on average, 10.4 percent per year, according to Ibbotson Associates, an investment research firm. Over that same time period, according to Ibbotson, long-term corporate bonds averaged just a 5.9 percent annual return, while U.S. Treasury bills returned just 3.7 percent annually.

Clearly, if you’re going to reach your long-term objectives, you will need a strong presence of stocks in your diversified portfolio.

Consider these suggestions:

Define your financial goals — We all have different financial goals. You may have three kids to put through college, while your neighbors have none. You may want to retire early and spend your time traveling and volunteering, while your neighbors plan to open their own business after their formal retirement. By thinking about your long-term goals, and committing them to writing, you’ll have a clearer sense of how much money you’ll need to accumulate. This information, in turn, will inform you about the rate of return you need to earn and the percentage of stocks you should probably own. You may want to work with a financial professional to establish these numbers.

Determine your risk tolerance — The percentage of stocks you have in your portfolio, and the type of stocks you own, will depend, in part, on your tolerance for risk. If you are, by nature, an aggressive investor, then you may feel more comfortable in owning a relatively large amount of growth stocks, those with the greatest potential for capital appreciation, but with a correspondingly higher level of risk. On the other hand, if you’re more risk-averse, then you may want to consider more “growth-and-income” stocks. These types of stocks may not appreciate as much as pure growth stocks, but their prices may be less likely to fluctuate as greatly.

Diversify, diversify, diversify — Stocks may be the hardest-working type of investment available, but they should never be the only investments you have working for you. It’s essential that you build a diversified portfolio, within the contexts of your long-term goals and your risk tolerance. By owning an array of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, government securities and other investments, you’ll create more opportunities for success, while reducing the chances of being hurt if market downturns primarily affect just one type of asset class.

By following these basic guidelines, you can make sure that your investment dollars are working hard for you — now and in the future.