Building a Taxable Portfolio Properly
Not a bad strategy. However: If you REALLY want tax efficiency you can buy stocks that don't pay a dividend, usually growth stocks like FB, GOOGL, and others. This way you will never have to pay any dividend tax - all your tax will be paid when you retire at a theoretically lower tax rate (<--- really a grey tax area here).  *Also, check out Robin Hood. They offer commission free stock trading.
@Victor above has provided a very good answer, I shall try and highlight some differences. The differences are specific to a country, however, it does offer some insight regarding the difference between investing in retirement fund vis-a-vis investing in stock directly: In many countries the retirement fund is mandated by the govt. and has to be invested in (in form of direct deduction from salary) ~ Investing in stock is up to the individual In many cases (if not most) capital gain/interest accrual in retirement funds are not taxable ~ Depending upon current laws capital gain (long term/short term) from stocks are taxable Retirement funds are managed and are (in general) more stable in their returns ~ Returns from direct stock investments are dependent on investment decisions of the investor Retirement funds tend to, (though this is very country specific) return somewhat less than market, as an example, in India Public Provident Fund (PPF)/Employee Provident Fund (EPF) return 8.68% tax free ~ As for direct investment on stocks, Nifty has returned approx. 17% CAGR over 15-20 years. Given the above, if you can invest in stock by taking informed calls and you have a good understanding of the financial markets and their underpinning and (probably) looking at long term investment, then investing directly in stock could fetch returns that might not be paralled by retirement funds. If on the other hand, if you feel investing in stock is not for you, then it probably is better to stick with retirement funds and other low risk investments. Either way, you probably have to (and may be you should) carry some portion of your portfolio as retirement funds. No. I have partaken of but not lately. It's only become non-taboo here in the last 10 years and I was raised to think it was bad and people who do it are slackers or lazy and the like. I've thankfully grown out of that old way of thinking and now know how profitable it is and feel this is a good venture to begin building a nice portfolio. I'd also like to get into real estate and solar and wind as well "It depends on what you're talking about. If this is for your retirement accounts, like IRAs, then ABSOLUTELY NOT! In your retirement accounts you should be broadly diversified - not just between stocks, but also other markets like bonds. Target retirement funds and solid conservative or moderate allocation funds are the best 'quick-and-dirty' recommendation for those accounts. Since it's for the long haul, you want to be managing risk, not chasing returns. Returns will happen over the 40 or so years they have to grow.  Now, if you're talking about a taxable stock account, and you've gotten past PF questions like ""am I saving enough for retirement"", and ""have I paid off my debt"", then the question becomes a little more murky.  First, yes, you should be diversified. The bulk of how a stock's movement will be in keeping with how its sector moves; so even a really great stock can get creamed if its sector is going down. Diversification between several sectors will help balance that.  However, you will have some advantage in this sector. Knowing which products are good, which products everybody in the industry is excited about, is a huge advantage over other investors. It'll help you pick the ones that go up more when the sector goes up, and down less when the sector goes down. That, over time and investments, really adds up. Just remember that a good company and a good stock investment are not the same thing. A great company can have a sky-high valuation -- and if you buy it at that price, you can sit there and watch your investment sink even as the company is growing and doing great things. Have patience, know which companies are good and which are bad, and wait for the price to come to you.  One final note: it also depends on what spot you are in. If you're a young guy looking looking to invest his first few thousand in the market, then go for it. On the other hand, if you're older, and we're talking about a couple hundred grand you've got saved up, then it's a whole different ball of wax. It that spot, you're back to managing risk, and need to build a solid portfolio, at a measured pace." In general I'd advise you to do it the other way around in the future:   Know what your plan is and what you need for it *before* reaching out publicly. That way you can respond more quickly and answer questions more easily.   As for the meeting: you basically need to prepare three things.   1. What do you need to know when the meeting is over? 2. What can you offer the client? 3. What is a fair price for your time?  Under 1: What kind of website do they want? Do you have complete freedom, or do you have to work within their existing branding? Can you deliver what they're asking? For example, if they want a CMS to manage their portfolio, can you build that?  Under 2: What's your own portfolio like? What can you use to convince the client you have the capabilities to deliver what they're asking? (Note the difference with 1: that's if you can actually do it, this is if you can convince them of that fact).   Under 3: Determine what you'd find a fair hourly wage, so that during the meeting you can estimate what the total price should be and when you should consider backing out.   Finally you should consider what you'll do if you run into complications. As it's your first client, it's good to give it some thought ahead of time, but it probably won't come up during the meeting.  As for being convincing: if you get #2 right you should be confident that you can actually do what you promise. If your portfolio is limited, you can look up websites yourself for other interior designers before the meeting so that you can go over them with the client. Ask which elements the client does and doesn't like, summarize it in the end and affirm you can deliver something combining those things. Did you read what I wrote? I sold some stock for a gain, that's a taxable event.  Are you trying to say I just shouldn't have sold it? Do you understand investing at all?   And the second point is moot, I still had to pay the tax, having write offs doesn't change the fact that my taxes were higher(more importantly that they would have been much higher if I couldn't take advantage of capital gains.) Unless you make those investments inside a tax-deferred account, you will have to pay income-taxes on that money this year. Because you made that money through your own business, you will also have payroll taxes due on that money this year. Although the market  discussion by other answers is correct, the  tax structure of many developed nations (I am familiar with Canada in particular) offers a preferred tax rate for dividend income compared to taxable gains. Consequently, if your portfolio is large enough to make transaction fees a very small percentage rate, this is a viable investment strategy.  However, as the preferred tax rate for dividends typically will catch up to that for capital gains at some cut-off point, there is a natural limit on how much income can be favourably obtained in this way.  If you believe your portfolio might be large enough to benefit from this investment strategy, talk to a qualified investment advisor, broker, or tax consultant for the specifics for your tax jurisdiction. The value to you of a tax free fund is going to depend largely on your current marginal tax bracket. For example if you had a regular MM that was paying 1% and it was taxable, then your net off that one percent would be  If the tax free MM fund pays .75% then you would be a tiny bit ahead using it, if you are in the 28% bracket, but you would be behind if you are in anything lower than 25%   The primary market (IMHO) for Tax Free money market funds is for high wealth individuals who are in the 33 OR 35 percent brackets