AS WITH ANY INVESTMENT, the potential for higher returns on short-term investments depends on how much risk you can take. Use this worksheet to find the risk level appropriate for you. After you've answered all the questions, your ideal mix of investments will appear below. Remember, you must answer all the questions for a graph of your ideal mix to appear.

Source: Ibbotson Associates calculated these results based on eight-and-a-half years of monthly returns data for the S&P 500, the Lehman one- to three-year Government Bond index and loan-participation funds as tracked by Lipper. The ranges of expected returns are based on two standard deviations from the average return, meaning actual returns would fall into that range about 98% of the time.