If you are an experienced investor, perhaps having dabbled in online forex trading or the stock market, then you have probably wished for a time machine to take you back to the moments before you made some transaction you now wish you’d held off on, or never made at all.  Unfortunately, there is no going back (yet,) so we have to live with our investment decisions long after they have been made.  This doesn’t just apply to investors in money markets, but also to people who spend their money on stuff.  Have you ever wondered what might have happened if you’d bought a few shares of stock a few years back in some of the companies you’d bought your favorite stuff from?  How much would that be worth today if you’d hung onto it?  What factors helped push those stock prices through the ceiling, and how can you learn from the past to help you make some sound decisions in the here and now?

One good bet is that if a certain company repeatedly manufactures and sells innovative products you can’t wait to get your hands on, it’s a good bet that investing in that company’s stock would be, well, a good bet.  What a difference just 5 or 10 years can make!  Have a look at the infographic below to see which companies’ stocks have enjoyed the highest growth in the last couple of decades, and how the value of a share of stock has matured.  Click the image to make it larger: