In 1997, I took an “Engineering Economics†course. This was one of the best courses I ever took, because what it REALLY taught had nothing to do with Engineering; it had to do with MONEY and INVESTING. During this class, we had a project in which we would pick $5,000 worth of company stocks and see how they went.
If I had actually invested $5,000 in those stocks, they would now be worth (You ready for this?) $9436. That’s nearly double!
Now, before I tell you what companies I had pretended to invest in, let me say that two of them are now out of business, the third has lost Two-Thirds of its original value. So what were they?
American Trans-Air (Gone)
Gateway Computers (Gone)
Advanced Micro Devices (Lost 2/3 value)
Apple Computers (Yep! The Winner!)
Apple was $22.19/share in 1997. Now it’s $209.79. I would have made about $4,436 over 12 years, or a 188% increase. I think.
…But, given my previous history of ACTUALLY buying stocks, going from $1,000 to Zero, I’d say my genius is still in question.
