I invest in stocks, but I wouldn't touch those investments with a 10-foot stick.

Investing my money has been my goal since I started my emergency fund years ago. Today, I prefer to invest in stocks.

Investing in stocks is risky. The market is very volatile and over the years my portfolio has lost a lot of money between one and two weeks.

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However, I do realize that stocks have a long history of rewarding investors who have held on to them for decades. Over the past 50 years, the stock market has averaged an annualized rate of return of 10%. If you invest $10,000 today at the same rate of return, 50 years from now that money could be worth about $1.17 million - no kidding.

To be clear, I don't always like investing in stocks. It took me many years to convince myself to accept the risks associated with stocks. But today, there are some investments that I wouldn't even consider adding to my portfolio. The following three investments fall into this category.

1. Encrypted Currency

As someone who owns a significant amount of stock, I am no stranger to risk. However, to me, the risk of investing in cryptocurrencies is higher than investing in stocks.much largerThe reason for this is simple: cryptocurrencies have not been around for very long.

Some of the stocks in my portfolio are issued by companies that have been around for over 100 years. In contrast, Bitcoin was only introduced to the public in 2009.

It's hard for me to know how much staying power cryptocurrencies have. That makes it a risk I'm not willing to take.

2. Art

I love classic paintings as much as the next guy. Mona Lisa? I made a point of seeing it when I visited the Louvre many years ago.

However, although I like to appreciate artworks, I refuse to actually invest in them. The reason is that I don't know enough about art to be able to judge whether a particular piece has the potential to increase in value.

Generally, I think I should only invest in assets that I understand. I don't know the financials of artifacts.

Heck, in a way, I don't always know what's behind the art.ArtIt's like when you see a million dollar modern painting and all you see is a bunch of swirling lines on a canvas. So there's no point in adding art to my portfolio.

3. Real estate

My investments in real estate are limited to the REITs, or Real Estate Investment Trusts, that I own, which are publicly traded and work in much the same way as stocks. But I don't own physical real estate as an investment, such as rental properties, for one important reason - I know I'm not up to the task.

As a landlord, there is a lot of work to be done other than paying the lease and collecting the rent checks every month. There is a lot of work to be done here, and I am not capable of doing it.

On the other hand, owning stocks takes very little time. I have to research the stocks before adding them to my portfolio, though. I also like to keep checking the performance of the stocks.

But that pales in comparison to the time I spend on overseeing rental properties. Therefore, I will not be investing in physical real estate anytime soon.

Choose your investments carefully

If you intend to use your funds for investment, you must be satisfied with your choice of assets. Therefore, you may wish to limit your investment holdings to those that meet the following criteria:

• Risks you can afford

• You know how it works

• You have time to maintain them.

Exceeding these limits may cause you to lose money. So, while it is a good idea to expand your portfolio to some extent, you should be careful not to get bogged down.

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We believe in the Golden Rule, so the views expressed in this article are our own and have not been checked, approved or endorsed by the advertisers.The Ascent does not cover all the offers on the market.The Ascent's editorial content is separate from The Motley Fool's. It is produced by a different team of analysts. The Ascent's editorial content is separate from The Motley Fool's editorial content and is produced by a different team of analysts.

I invest in stocks, but I wouldn't touch those investments with a 10-foot pole.