7 Reasons Your Investments Aren't Giving You the Returns You Hoped For

The point of investing your money is to put it to work so that it generates solid returns that help make you wealthy. If you're not happy with the returns you're getting in your portfolio, these could be some of the reasons why.

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If you play it too conservative with your portfolio, you may find that your returns fall short of your expectations. For solid returns, you can't just settle for lower-risk bonds. Instead, you may need to go heavy on stocks, even if that falls outside your comfort zone.

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Index funds are a great way to build a diverse portfolio without doing a ton of research. But these funds are only designed to match the broad market's performance -- not beat it. If you're looking for better returns, you'll need to handpick individual stocks.

Your portfolio isn't something you should just set and forget. If you haven't reviewed your investments in quite some time, log into your brokerage account and see what your personal mix looks like. It may be that you need to dump some stocks that have been underperforming for quite some time.

Having a diverse portfolio is an important part of generating solid returns. If you're too heavily invested in a single market segment, it could be impeding your portfolio's growth. If so, branch out to different segments, or add some exchange-traded funds into the mix.

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You can't buy stocks, sell them a year later, and expect your return on investment to be fabulous. If you really want to enjoy solid returns, prepare to hold stocks for a decade or longer.

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You might expect to see a 20% average yearly return in your portfolio, and with the right stocks, that may be possible over time. But remember, over the past 30 years, the S&P 500 index has enjoyed an average annual return of 10.7%, so your portfolio's performance may end up being comparable.

Though the S&P 500 index has enjoyed an average yearly return of close to 11% over the past three decades, it's had its share of bad years, too. In 1994, the index delivered a return of just 1.32%. Worse yet, from 2000 through 2002, it delivered negative returns. If you start investing right before the broad market dips, you might see a period of poor returns. But hang in there -- the stock market has a long history of recovering from downturns and making investors lots of money, so if you wait out those declines, you may start enjoying much higher returns.

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The portfolio you assemble should help you meet your various financial goals. If you're not getting the returns you'd hoped for, adjust your strategy so you can generate more wealth for yourself.

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