Top 10 Things You Wish You Had Invested In Since 2000

Let’s start our list off with a no-brainer. Microsoft is one of the biggest computer companies ever. Their software and operating system are basically the de-facto ones for PCs everywhere. Founder Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world. Heck, the company has even expanded into video games, and managed to corner practically a third of the market. Accordingly, their stocks have risen immensely, with returns from the early 2000s ranging from 140 to over 400 percent growth. Microsoft has been generally reliable, but it hasn’t changed the game like some of our entries to come.

A cryptocurrency and a digital payment system, Bitcoin has been all the rage of late and for good reason: they’re extremely valuable. At one point in 2017, a single bitcoin was valued at around 20 thousand dollars! Sure, it’s dropped since then – but it may very well go back up. We might have ranked Bitcoin higher, but the concept is still largely in its infancy and its rapid drop in price indicates that it’s not a stable investment. The difficulty in understanding exactly how they work can also be quite the barrier to investment, although given how little people understand regular stocks, we don’t see it stopping everyone.

What’s so exciting about gold? After all, it’s been around for practically as long as human civilization. It’s basically been the standard by which we judge the value of other things! As unlikely as it might seem, gold has been incredibly profitable in the early 21st century, and not just because of those cheesy “Cash for Gold” ads. If you’d bought an ounce of gold in 2006, you would have paid around $635. That value would have gone up to over $1600 in only 6 years! That kind of return on a time-honored commodities investment is nearly unheard of.

It’s not just the big names that are worth investing in. Priceline is a group of websites, including the eponymous one that started it, centered on comparing the best prices for travel and holiday expenses, like airfare, food, and hotels. The group’s stock value has increased over 16 and a half THOUSAND percent since 2002! How appropriate that investing in a vacation planning site can help you afford more vacations. Whether the explosive returns are due to the charisma of William Shatner or the ease and utility offered by the group’s websites, it’s clear that Priceline was a direct line to huge profits.

Now we’re getting into the big leagues and even bigger names. Facebook has set the bar for practically every social media site out there and is the most popular one in the world, with over 2 billion users in 2017. That’s more than a quarter of humanity! Since going public in 2012, Facebook’s early investors have seen a return of some 350 percent on their investment, making for exceptional growth in only 5 years. It would take a massive shakeup in the tech world to unseat Facebook from its status as a cultural touchstone, so its continued success seems likely.

While it’s not really in the public eye much in the West, Alibaba is one of the 10 largest and most profitable companies in the world. It’s China’s number one online retailer and its 2016 revenue was higher than every US e-retailer combined! Since Alibaba’s IPO in 2014, after some initial shakiness, the company’s stock more than doubled in value, leaving investors feeling like they’ve said “open sesame” to easy profit. Given the company’s expansion in a variety of other specialties, and China’s massive population, Alibaba’s hoard won’t be diminishing any time soon.

It’s almost quaint how we all thought that putting Blockbuster out of business would be the biggest thing that Netflix would accomplish. From its beginnings as a DVD delivery company, Netflix has developed into a dominant part of the media industry; essentially defining streaming services and putting out more original shows and films than any other network or platform. The company’s stock has risen accordingly, by over 6700 percent in one decade! People who got in early can sit back for some Netflix and mil…lions…okay, most won’t have made that much, but it’s still a lot!

The online marketplace that basically started online marketplaces, Amazon is a massive titan of e-commerce and they’ve begun branching out to encompass original television programming and food services as well. As we stated before, Alibaba exceeds US e-commerce platforms in profits, and that includes Amazon. However, Amazon went public in 1997, which, along with making it more influential, also means its investors have had more time to accrue profits. 1000 dollars invested in Amazon in 2007 would yield about 12 times that today, which helped make its founder, Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world in 2017.

C’mon – everyone saw this coming. This technology company is best known for its search engine, which is now the most popular website in the world. They’ve also branched out with a web browser and a phone, as well as innovative technology, like self-driving cars. Google also owns YouTube, the most popular video sharing platform (and probably where you’re watching this video). Investments made in 2008 have tripled in value and with all Google has going for it, it’s not hard to see why. Though other stocks have seen bigger growth, Google’s unexpected and consistent rise, as well as its diversification led us to choose it for our penultimate pick.



Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:



Nintendo




Disney




Tesla

The 21st century has been good to Apple…which is good, because the 20th wasn’t, at least towards the end of it. Beginning as the chief rival of Microsoft, Apple’s success has been due to their diversification, getting into mp3 players, smart phones, and other devices, as well as their ability to market all their products better than their competitors. They now stand as one of the most recognizable brands in the world. While its ten year return on investment may not be as high as some of our other entries (an increase of six fold over 10 years starting in 2007), Apple’s brand power made it number one in our eyes.