I have been buying Apple stock off and on for the last twenty years, and I am pleased to report it has consistently been on of my best investments. My one regret is that I just didn’t buy and hold. This week as Apple’s market cap catapulted past long-time rival Microsoft, NPR did an interesting analysis of the impact if a consumer had chosen to support Apple by buying their stock as opposed to their products. Here are a few interesting points to consider:

• In 2003 if you had chosen to invest  the price of an Apple Powerbook ($3339) on Apple stock instead of buying the computer, your stock would now be worth approximately $120,000!  Your Powerbook, on the other hand, would be worth, well, not so much.
• In 2004 if you had chosen to buy Apple stock instead of buying that iPod mini for $240, your stock would now be worth $6103.

Of course, if we had all just bought stock instead of Apple products, these numbers would look a lot different.