If my investment portfolio is a reflection of my personality, you would not want to hang out with me for longer than 30 seconds. Honestly, most of my portfolio is dull.

There’s a prudent mix of equities and fixed income, with some cash idling on the sidelines. There are low-cost exchange-traded funds that provide global market exposure. A bank ETF and several individual stocks generate dividends.

But don’t walk away just yet.

Though my holdings are clearly a diversified snooze fest, I have carved out some room for higher risk investments that give me a few thrills – and, I hope, extra returns (some day).

See over there? Those are U.S. junk bonds. And over there? That’s a real estate investment trust that owns – can you believe it? – urban office space. Oh, and that’s a small bet on renewable power generation right there.

I understand if that’s not your idea of exciting. I don’t think there is anything in my portfolio that encompasses a crazy amount of risk.

The point, though, is that many of us take a similar approach to our investment portfolios. We allocate the vast majority of our assets sensibly and then have a little fun with the rest.

The goals are the same: We want stable returns. But perhaps the time horizons are shorter with fun money and we can take more risk with a small slice of our assets.

Some professionals can see the benefits in this approach.

Jack Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, the U.S.-based investment company that recognized the benefits of low-cost index investing decades ago, acknowledged in 2014 that a responsible investor could probably dabble with up to 5 per cent of their portfolio.

The way he saw it, that portion wasn’t large enough to cause any long-term damage to our savings but was big enough to satisfy our speculative impulses, protecting the rest of the portfolio from our vices.

Bogle added a note of caution though: This “funny money,” as he called it, was unlikely to match the performance of a diversified portfolio over the long term.

Fair warning. But if investors decide to take a few chances anyway, there are now plenty of ways to speculate – er, have fun.

Buying individual stocks, rather than investing in diversified funds, might provide plenty of thrills for most of us.

Others might dabble in options, penny stocks or single-stock ETFs, which can use derivatives to magnify gains. There’s also short-selling, or betting against stocks, or making a bet on one of the prediction markets that have gone mainstream in recent years.

You can chase a momentum play or invest in a hedge fund that does the heavy lifting for us.

If any of these pursuits look more scary than fun, avoid at all costs. Strict boundaries can prevent problems. Consider walling-off your designated fun money to avoid replenishing the account if your bets turn against you.

Be aware of the risks. With some approaches, such as short-selling, you can lose more money than your original bet. And know when to call it quits.

What’s your approach to fun money? Do you have any? Let me know if you make wagers on higher risk investments for the sheer thrill of it – and how that has worked out for you. As always, I’m at dberman@globeandmail.com.