I think of it in terms of a down payment on a house most of the time. That's my big financial goal right now. I have come up with my own theory of stock picking, straight out of my psychology background. From my college days I dredge up the lesson on Abraham Maslow, and his hierarchy of needs . To put it very briefly, it theorizes that our needs form a pyramid or hierarchy based on priority.
Physiological needs are at the bottom, self-actualization is at the top.
I figure that since everyone has physiological needs, companies that deal with them might be good choices. The beginning of our financial odyssey. Himself and I spent 6.5 hours at Borders looking through financial and investment books trying to figure out which to buy. These were the 4 we bought after paging through over 2 dozen books. The author, Jonathan Hoenig, is 23 and has written an investment book for people of his generation.