Looking back at my stock picks from 2024, I have to say the results speak for themselves. If you'd put $10,000 equally across my top 10 picks at the start of the year, you'd have walked away with $14,281 by early December. Compare that to the S&P 500 which would've given you $12,890 – that's a 48% outperformance. Pretty solid, especially when you consider how strong the broader market was performing.

Nine out of ten of my picks delivered solid returns. The standout winner? Lemonade absolutely crushed it with a 185% gain. That insurance company came into the year beaten down over 90% from its highs, but their AI-driven profitability push really paid off. Amazon climbed 45% on the back of their AI capabilities in AWS, while Costco just kept doing what it does best – up 50% and hitting fresh all-time highs. SoFi gained 57% as they proved they could be sustainably profitable, and Nu Holdings (the Brazilian digital bank) was up 44% with their cross-selling momentum.

The only real disappointment was Lululemon, which dropped 33% after some missteps in product launches and weakness in the premium apparel market. But here's the thing – at those lower prices, it started looking like a bargain at 26x trailing earnings.

I also included Airbnb (flat after gaining 59% in 2023 but now looking like a value play), Global-e Online (up 34% with solid growth toward profitability), MercadoLibre (up 26% despite some market headwinds), and Visa (up 20%, slightly underperforming but still solid).

The real lesson here? When thinking about what stocks to invest in, quality matters. These companies all had strong fundamentals – whether it's Amazon's cloud dominance, Costco's reliability across economic cycles, or Nu's explosive growth in emerging markets. Even Lululemon's struggles didn't change the fact that it's a leading brand in its category.

That said, ten stocks don't make a diversified portfolio. This list skewed heavily toward growth, so if you're considering any of these, you'd want to round things out with additional holdings or ETFs. The market changes year to year – some picks will be duds, others will surge. But if you focus on buying quality companies and holding long term, that's where the real wealth building happens. The year-to-year swings matter less when you've got that mindset.