I Invest in Stocks, but I Won't Touch These Investments With a 10-Foot Pole

Investing money is something I've aimed to do since completing my emergency fund years ago. And these days, I tend to favor stocks as my investment of choice.

Investing in stocks can be a risky proposition. The market can be quite volatile, and through the years, I've seen my portfolio lose substantial value from one week to the next.

I also know, however, that stocks have a long history of rewarding investors who stick with them for decades. Over the past 50 years, the stock market has averaged an annual return of 10%. If you were to invest $10,000 today at that same return, in 50 years from now, it might be worth about $1.17 million -- no joke.

To be clear, I wasn't always comfortable investing in stocks. It took years for me to talk myself into accepting the risk that comes with them. But to this day, there are certain investments I won't even consider adding to my portfolio. Here are three that fall into that category.

1. Crypto

As someone who owns her fair share of stocks, I'm no stranger to risk. However, to me, cryptocurrency investing is just way riskier than stock investing for the sheer reason that it hasn't been around as long.

There are stocks in my portfolio whose issuing companies have been around for more than 100 years. Bitcoin, by contrast, was only introduced to the public in 2009.

It's hard for me to know how much staying power crypto has. That puts it into the category of being a risk I'm unwilling to take on.

2. Art

I like a classic painting as much as the next person. The Mona Lisa? I made a point to check it out when I visited the Louvre years ago.

But while I enjoy looking at art, I refuse to actually invest in it. And the reason is that I don't know enough about art to determine whether a given work has the potential to gain value or not.

As a general rule, I believe that I should only invest in assets I understand. I don't understand the finances of art.

Heck, to some degree, I don't always understand the art behind art, like those modern paintings you see fetch $1 million when all you're looking at is a bunch of swirly lines on a canvas. So it doesn't make sense to add art to my portfolio.

3. Real estate

I'm invested in real estate to the extent that I own REITs, or real estate investment trusts, which are publicly traded and work very much like stocks to a large degree. But I don't own physical real estate as an investment, like rental properties, for one big reason -- I know I'm not capable of doing the work.

Being a landlord is a lot more than handing out leases and collecting rent checks every month. There's a ton of work that goes into it, and I don't have the capacity for it.

Owning stocks, on the other hand, involves a minimal time commitment. Sure, I have to research stocks before adding them to my portfolio. And I like to check up on my stocks' performance on an ongoing basis.

But that pales in comparison to the time I might spend overseeing a rental property. As such, physical real estate is an asset I won't be investing in any time soon.

Choose your investments carefully

If you're going to put your money to work by investing it, you need to be comfortable with the assets you choose. As such, you may want to limit your holdings to investments that meet these criteria:

• The risk is one you're reasonably comfortable with
• You understand how they work
• You have the time to maintain them

Going outside of these lines could result in you losing money. So while it's a good idea to branch out in your portfolio to some degree, you'll want to do so with caution to avoid getting in over your head.