“Being an Apple fan has paid off handsomely for Alex Gerb,” Heather Long reports for CNNMoney.
“He doesn’t just own the products, he owns the stock. He’s made close to $50,000 since he first bought Apple shares in 2007,” Long reports. “While working his way through college in Maryland, he took all the money he had to his name — about $4,000 — and bought the stock. Friends thought he was a little nuts. Now they kick themselves for not following his lead.”
MacDailyNews Take: Smart guy, than Alex Gerb!
“Gerb is hardly alone. Apple is one of the most popular stocks on the planet. People are making big money off the stock’s phenomenal rise in the last decade.
In January 2005, the stock was trading for around $5 a share,” Long reports. “Today it’s worth about $130 a share and is the most valuable company in the world.”
Much more, including gripes about Apple’s “skimpy” dividend, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Success stories? On paper or realized, let’s hear ’em!
We’ll start: In 1997, a friend remarked that he had some $32,000 in his checking account that wasn’t doing much for him. The money coming in was good and he was just adding it to his account. It was earning no interest at all; it was just sitting there. We discussed the recent return of Steve Jobs to Apple and how, perhaps, that $32,000 might be better put to work by investing in AAPL. Our friend did just that, he purchased $32,000 of AAPL shares in August 1997 and still holds the vast majority of those shares today. That investment turned out alright, huh?
I invested $15,000 in stock when I knew SJ was coming back to Apple. I cashed it in not long later for $60,000 and started a small business! I have continued to invest over the years on my own, for myself in Apple. In February I had 2 investments in Apple options, 1 position has grown over 100% and the other position has grown over 240% (in February alone)! Apple user since 1983! Go Steve Jobs! Go Tim Cook! Long Live Apple Inc!
Started buying in 2001 with 100 shares from an Income Tax refund. Kept buying until the share price hit the 320-330ish range. Sold some at over $400 a share and bought me a nice new car for cash.
Have not added since then but have held and watched it continue to grow. Amazing run.
Steve Jobs was famously against paying dividends and when questioned at shareholder meetings would answer along the lines of “my job is to make you rich by driving up the share price”. I still think Steve was right and that dividends- at least regular ones- should have been avoided.
The only regret I have is that I wish I had bought more shares earlier.
Put all the money I had saved for my kids college at the time ($6800 on 03/2000) into AAPL at $20 a share. This gave me 340 shares and I left it there.
The college fund is well worth over $1.3 million. They will be debt free when they are done with college. The rest will go toward my retirement (soon), and some will go to them.
Happy, happy, happy.
Sorry, I meant March of 1998. Dooh!
I remember reading an article shortly before I did. The writer was saying at the time that you could buy AAPL at $13 dollars a share and they had enough cash on hand to cover $12 dollars a share so it was like risking only $1 dollar.
Knew SJ has back and I believed.
I rolled over a 401K into an IRA back in 1993 and bought invested all of it in Apple stock. I’ve done some buying and selling to try to time markets, but basically it’s just sat there. I’m currently at nearing 50,000 shares. I’m honestly not sure what to move the money into that will provide me with a steady and reasonably high rate of return that’s guaranteed so that I can simply retire now, rather than waiting until I’m 59.5 years of age and can make the withdrawals without the tax hit… I welcome the wisdom of the crowd.
This is a two part question and let me try to help you. Sounds like you do have enough for a comfortable retirement. Congratulations! To withdraw funds from your IRA account without the 10% early withdrawal penalty, you can make “substantially equal periodic payments” from your IRA account, at any age. Keep in mind that the withdrawal is still subject to regular income taxes.
As far as generating a steady, high rate of return that is guaranteed, unfortunately these are conflicting priorities and there’s no “free lunch” in the world. If you are satisfied with steady, guaranteed return, it will not be at a high rate in today’s low rate environment. Investments that has the potential if generating high rates of returns come with inherent risks and volatility. You can always stick with AAPL and be happy with the regular dividend income. At least that part is steady, right? You can also purchase an immediate annuity, that way you get a guaranteed lifetime income. You are in a good position and you have many, many options. The important thing is to start working with a financial advisor to plan out your retirement, tax, and investment strategy. Best of luck to you!
Thanks, friend. I appreciate it. I have a financial advisor who manages the other bits of IRA money, and has encouraged me for years to allow him to “help” me by re-investing the funds I’ve left in AAPL. I guess it’s time to begin having those discussions with him, but I’ve been hard-wired to answer “no” to those suggestions.
My advice would be to die, so your wife can inherit AAPL at its current cost basis with no tax liability. 😀
With the possible exception of convincing my wife to agree to hang out with me 20+ years ago, my best decision was to buy 500 shares AAPL in 1997, and 500 more a few years later.
Value today: $2.7M.
One friend in ’97 was quite concerned about my “flushing money down the toilet”. He urged me to follow him into Iomega because of their breakout product, the Zip drive.
Ha ha, great story. If I only had another AAPL share for everyone who told me to sell AAPL the last 20+ years!
I bought Apple in college too. In 1993. 😀
Outperformed Buffett all these years, but I get paid with my own investments, instead of taking huge fees from other peoples’ money. So not a billionaire.