A year ago, people were saying their 401k's turned into 201k's as the market tanked. Now financial advisers say those retirement accounts are seeing a rebound, so what should you do?

In this "On the Money," report, we wanted to find you some advice on how to protect the money you may be making back.

The sound of the bell hasn't changed from a year ago, but the tone on Wall Street has.

"The stock market is like a mirror of how we feel. We feel a lot more confident today than we did 6 months ago," says Financial Adviser Bill Hilgedick. He says people's retirement accounts are on the mend, "if you kinda stuck to the plan and it took a lot of guts to do it, but we got through it okay."

He says while your statements might show big gains, a lot of investors still haven't made back the big losses from last year.

"If you were putting in money and continuing on that plan it accelerates the recovery that much faster."

So what now? Hilgedick says it's time to step back and take a look at the numbers. "Make sure the investments you have today are the ones that will get you to retirement," he adds.

He says one of true tests of a strong company is: does it pay dividends?

"Maybe their stock values will go down but they're still paying cash," he notes.

Here's a list of some companies he says are paying dividends this year:
Walgreens
Coke
Pepsi
AT&T
McDonalds
Xcel Energy
Best Buy
TJ Maxx
WalMart
Target

But he says diversifying is still a good way to go. "Don't have more than 5% of your net worth in one stock," Hilgedick says.

And he says cover all your bases. Most mutual funds will do that for you, but he says balanced investments should cover technology, consumer goods, oil and gas, financial and even international funds.

"So that no matter what happens, you're making money. You'll always have some part of your portfolio that will over perform and unfortunately some will under perform," he said.

And while he says the market is still having its ups and downs, history may give us more hope.

"The market typically recovers 6 to 12 months before the economy does, we're about 6 months into that phase."

If you want to do the investment homework yourself, Hilgedick recommends an impartial investor site where you can look up company history. To see it, click here.

If you need face to face help, he recommends checking to see if your company has a program for you to get advice. He says most 401k funds do have people who can meet with you, or you can call a local financial adviser and see if they can give you some free advice. He says financial planners and investment brokers can charge commission or a fee.