The investment behaviour of German private households is often characterised by a suboptimally high share of low risk, low interest forms of investment in their portfolio. Especially with respect to longer-term investment periods average returns could significantly be augmentend with only slight increases of portfolio risk. The goal of the project was to demonstrate the long-term effects of return oriented portfolio restructuring on average risk and return. To this end, at first, the average asset structures for a set of different household types have been determined on the basis of the sample survey of income and expenditure 2003 of the Federal Statistical Office (EVS). Subsequently portfolio shifts have been simulated and confidence intervals of returns, based on historical averages, have been calculated.