By Jim Hagarty
2012
This hurts. In 2001 and 2002 my wife and I bought two desktop Apple computers, the flashy, colourful “bubble” ones. They cost about $4,500 combined. Apple shares at the time were selling for $8. If we had bought shares instead of iMacs, we would now own 563 shares, assuming we hadn’t added to that number over the years. Yesterday, Apple hit $600 on the stock market. If we sold them today, we would have $337,800. Instead, as it stands, one of our Macs was taken to recycling last year and the other sits forlorn and unused in the basement. As for me, a little tear just trickled down my unwealthy cheek. (Update: Apple shares fell from that lofty 2012 figure to $175 yesterday, Jan. 5, 2018. If we had sold our phantom shares for $600 and banked the cash, we could have bought 1,930 shares with it at yesterday’s price. When it went back up to $600, we would then have $1,158,000. P.S. I like to drive myself half insane with my calculator, which, if I hadn’t bought it, I could have picked up shares in Texas Instruments…)
