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A 100K investment in 1998 is … how much now?

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Written by Harrison Scott Key

April 18, 10:23 AM

Everybody says the economy is tanking, so to provide some perspective – or maybe some reason for why it’s tanking – take a look at how a (roughly) $100,000 investment would turn out now, a decade later.

An $85,000 “One-Bedroom Apartment on the Upper East Side” would now be worth $515,000.
$99,991, worth of gold would now be worth $301,488.
$97,500 worth of Hermès Kelly bags (20 total) would now be worth only $86,000.
$92,100 worth of BMW (A BMW 750IL) would now be worth $11,999 (with low mileage).
$99,995 worth of Apple Stock would now be worth $1,997,797.

The lesson is: Do what wise Americans have always done: Invest in good companies and buy a house.

Topic: Culture, WorldMagBlog

Keywords: economics

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back to top13 Comments to “A 100K investment in 1998 is … how much now?”

BY Cheryl D. 04.18.08 AT 11:14 AM

Harrison,

It would be worth noting what inflation has done to buying power in that decade. That is, what would $100 put under a mattress ten years ago but today?
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BY Make it Man 04.18.08 AT 11:25 AM

It sure won’t buy as much gas or groceries.
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BY Make it Man 04.18.08 AT 11:25 AM

I remember when I left Alaska that paying 1.19/gal for gas seemed kinda high.
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BY Ree 04.18.08 AT 11:39 AM

Sounds to me like gold isn’t a bad investment.
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BY jjf 04.18.08 AT 1:05 PM

Ree,

I’ve thought about investing in gold. I’m no financial analyst, but my understanding is that gold maintains a more or less constant purchasing power over time. So buying gold is like “locking in” the dollars you bought it with at their current purchasing power. If the dollar continues to fall, your investment (in dollars) increases, but in purchasing power stays roughly the same. If the dollar rebounds, you’re going to lose money.
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BY KayVee 04.18.08 AT 1:27 PM

Cheryl D – that $100 of 1998 would have been worth $79.86 in 2007. A fun website is the inflation calculator, which allows you to see what an amount in any year since 1800 would be worth in 2007, and vice versa.

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

I haven’t been out on the road for a couple of days, so I don’t know if gas has reached $4 a gallon here yet [last I saw at the corner station was $3.79], but 2007’s $4 would have been $3.11 in 1998. It would have been $0.52 in 1956, when I started driving [an aside, what cost $4 in 1956 would cost $29.82 in 2007].
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BY deb 04.18.08 AT 3:31 PM

But what are my Beanie Babies worth?
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BY Frank in Phoenix 04.18.08 AT 4:07 PM

Cheryl D. (1): … what would $100 put under a mattress ten years ago [buy] today?

Frank: It would still buy $100 worth of stuff!

But seriously, you obviously meant something like “What kind of buying power does $100 have today compared to ten years ago?” And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Calculator …

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

… $100 buys today what $76.34 bought just 10 years ago. IOW, our dollar has lost 25% of its buying power in a mere ten years.

Those greedy corporations … [/sarcasm off]
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BY Travis Birkenstock 04.18.08 AT 4:17 PM

$100 buys a whole lot more computing power and Internet access than it did in 1998. Not to mention telephone service.

Who’d have thunk back then that you could get unlimited cell phone usage and free long distance to anywhere in the US for under $100/month?
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BY Frank in Phoenix 04.18.08 AT 4:19 PM

JJF,

Some resources for your consideration:

http://the-moneychanger.com/

http://goldprice.org/

http://goldprice.org/silver-and-gold-prices/

http://silverprice.org/

http://coingallery.com/

And lastly, “Precious Metals for Dummies” just came out this year.

Having a portion of your savings/investment portfiolio — say 10-15% — in physical metals is a good idea, IMHO.
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BY krm 04.18.08 AT 4:21 PM

Deb – They are largely worthless (well, you could put them in your garage sale and get anythignup to a dollar for one, or not).
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BY Frank in Phoenix 04.18.08 AT 4:24 PM

JJF,

Franklin Sanders’ “Ten Commandments For Buying Gold & Silver” (http://the-moneychanger.com/commandments.phtml):

1. Always take delivery

2. Never buy premium if you can avoid it.

3. Buy bullion for business, numismatics for fun.

4. Buy silver first, then gold.

5. Buy small gold first, then large.

6. Never buy exotic coins or modern rarities or anything you don’t understand.

7. Know your dealer.

8. What governments can’t find, they can’t steal.

9. Never swap bullion coins for U.S. $20 gold pieces.

10. Never break the law.
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BY Scroop Moth 04.20.08 AT 4:11 PM

The converse of Harrison’s wise advice is, don’t spend. Your $4 cappuccino will cost you $12 in hindsight. Your $12 lunch will cost you $50 in hindsight. That kind of regret adds up. Tell yourself that at those prices you’d rather fix yourself some instant coffee and a sandwich.

Don’t be paranoid, either. You’re preparing for the future, not disaster.
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