Though its applications can be widely observed, investment professionals advise against trying to apply the 80/20 rule when building a portfolio.  The 80/20 rule can be effectively used to guard against risk when individuals put 80% of their money into safer investments, like savings bonds and CDs, and the remaining 20% into riskier growth stocks. However, using the 80/20 rule to try and hand-pick stocks that will potentially yield 80% of your returns is ill-advised.