By definition, the American Dream is “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.”
Sure. That sounds nice. But the real American Dream, the American Dream that most of us have, doesn’t involve all that hard work nonsense. It involves a scenario where we time the living shit out of the stock market (or an individual stock) for our own, very massive financial gain. THAT’S MY AMERICAN DREAM, BABY!
That isn’t always possible. I understand that. Especially when you consider that 57% of Americans have less than $1000 in their savings account. Makes you wonder how many of them already have the new iPhone. They can’t pay for an emergency, but at least they can take really vivid photos of it happening!
Anyway, the folks at cost-estimating website HowMuch.net wanted to see what would have happened to a $1,000 investment in 15 of the most popular American stocks in the last ten years. Since we are still in a bull market, most of these stocks would have made you money, some of them A LOT of money. But one stock (General Electric) would have left you down a few hundred dollars.
Market Watch
When you invest only $1000 in anything, you can’t expect much back in return. That is, unless you hit the stock lottery and find a gem that will more than quadruple your initial investment. Some of these stocks were big time gems over the last decade. And looking at this and realizing that you would have $500K if you only invested $10,000 in Netflix ten years ago is obviously depressing. Makes me want to vomit.
[H/T Market Watch via How Much]