Originally Posted by
Dreadnaught
My goals are medium/long term capital appreciation, with a secondary goal of generating some income from dividends.
Most of my non-cash savings is in Vanguard mutual funds in a 401k, so it's effectively locked-away in mutual funds until I'm 65. So my goal with individual stock choices is to build a separate money pile I can tap earlier in my life (home purchases, wedding, etc).
I do use a few mutual funds, but candidly I want to diversify away from them a bit and possibly make some solid picks with lower fees, fewer restrictions and direct dividend income that I'll probably enjoy having around over the next decade or two.