Time machine tool lets you see how much $100 in these stocks could have grown to
If you had invested $1,000 in Apple in 1980, that money would have grown to about $2.6 million today.
If that makes you wish you had a time machine, you are in luck.
While no machine has the power to send you back in time to give your younger self financial advice, the Get the Facts Data Team has built the second-best thing.
Click “Go” on the time machine below to see how much money you could have made if you had invested in one of the five selected stocks or if you had invested in the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is an index of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.
You can adjust both the year and amount invested.
Investing hesitancy
Only about 62% of Americans are invested in the stock market, according to a Gallup poll.
Most of those invested have an income of six figures or more, but experts say that you do not have to have a lot of money to begin your stock market journey.
“It may be scary to start today, but there’s no better time,” said Scott Laing, clinical assistant professor of finance at the University at Buffalo.
Even $25 of Apple stock at its opening would have made you about $65,000 today. A $25 investment in Microsoft at its opening in 1986 would have made you upward of $125,000.
What to consider when investing
Unfortunately, just as time machines do not exist, neither do crystal balls. There is no way to know for certain which companies today will become the next Nvidia, Amazon or Apple.
Luckily, you do not have to select individual companies to begin investing in the stock market.
Index funds like the S&P 500 or ETFs, which are essentially pre-diversified assets, are great starting points, experts say.
The historical average annual return of the S&P 500 is about 10%, according to Fidelity.
“What matters is you’re in the market, and usually over time, a rising tide lifts all ships,” Laing said. “As you go into that time machine 50 years from now, I would expect most of those diversified assets have grown a decent amount.”
