How Is Your Money Invested?

If you’ve ever heard a financial planner mention a 60/40 portfolio or come across terms like asset allocation and rebalancing, you might have wondered, “Is my portfolio balanced?" and more important, “How is my money actually invested?”

Whether you’ve been saving diligently for years or recently received a windfall, understanding where your money is and how it’s working for you is an essential part of building long-term financial security. Yet many people, even those with substantial savings, aren't sure exactly how much they have in stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, commodities and cash.

This guide will help you get a clearer picture of your investment mix and show you how to calculate your current allocation so you can make informed decisions in the future.

Knowing Your Investment Allocation Matters

Asset allocation refers to the mix of investments you hold, including stocks, bonds, cash, real estate and other assets. Different asset classes can behave differently in various market conditions, so how you allocate your assets affects your potential returns and risk exposure.1

When you know where your money is, you can determine whether your portfolio is appropriately diversified and whether it aligns with your goals and time horizon.

This information is crucial because strategic asset allocation, rather than individual stock picking or market timing, is the biggest driver of long-term investment performance.2

How to Calculate Your Asset Allocation

If all your money was in one account or with one financial institution, determining how it’s invested would be as simple as looking at a recent statement or online dashboard. But chances are, you have cash, stocks, bonds and other investments spread across a variety of “buckets,” from money in a savings account at your local bank branch to securities in a workplace retirement account to the home you live in.

Here’s how to wrangle all that information to figure out what you actually have.

Step 1: Take Inventory of Your Securities

Securities include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). If you hold individual stocks and bonds, check your brokerage statements and tally up your holdings.

You may also own mutual funds or electronic transfer funds (ETFs), which are investment vehicles that allow you to invest in a diversified portfolio of assets. To figure out what’s inside, look up the fund’s composition using the ticker symbol on a financial or stock site or your brokerage’s fund detail page.3 Note the percentage in stocks versus bonds and cash, and whether the stocks are domestic versus international.

If you own a fund that holds real estate (like a REIT), classify that portion as real estate, not securities.

Step 2: Assess Your Cash Holdings

Cash doesn’t just mean the money in your wallet or checking and savings accounts. It also includes:

• Money market accounts
• Certificates of Deposit (CDs)
• U.S. Treasuries, including T-Bonds, T-Notes, T-Bills, TIPS, I-Bonds and EE Bonds.

If you own U.S. Treasury savings bonds, you can track your electronic bonds easily at TreasuryDirect.gov. If you hold paper bonds, use the Treasury’s Savings Bond Calculator to determine their current value.3 You'll need the bond’s series (e.g., EE or I), issue date and face value.