If you were magically transported back to 1985, how would you make your fortune?

[Colonoscopy]

Given everything you know right now.

You're starting out as a broke 20 year old. You're "new" everywhere, no existing family or social network. Have to build a life. And you didn't arrive with anything but the shirt on your back and what's in your head right now. You weren't told to prepare for the mission, so no master plan.

How do you become fabulously wealthy?

What parcels of future knowledge would you be able to exploit?

I'm thinking this isn't quite as easy as people might imagine. One consideration being that your arrival (and actions) might cause ripples that would disrupt the future you know.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

I'd put all my disposable income into apple/microsoft/gap

Microsoft - 39 Year Stock Price History | MSFT

Historical daily share price chart and data for Microsoft since 1986 adjusted for splits and dividends. The latest closing stock price for Microsoft as of January 17, 2025 is <strong>429.03</strong>. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>The all-time high Microsoft stock closing price...

www.macrotrends.net

Apple - 45 Year Stock Price History | AAPL

Historical daily share price chart and data for Apple since 1980 adjusted for splits and dividends. The latest closing stock price for Apple as of January 17, 2025 is <strong>229.98</strong>. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>The all-time high Apple stock closing price was...

www.macrotrends.net

| MacroTrends

www.macrotrends.net

Sell the gap stock around 2000.

Unfortunately my 20 years old self was more interested in chicks and booze and lived paycheck to paycheck.

 

[TennNole17]

I’d buy land. Lots of it.

 

[cfbfan23]

Microsoft stock

Edit - It wasn't public until 1986. If you put $50,000 into it then, you'd have close to 500,000 shares now, generating dividends of over $1.3MM annually. The stock, itself, would be worth almost $120MM.

I could live on that.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

I’d buy land. Lots of it.

Could you imagine buying land in the Destin area in 1985. Mid bay bridge and Destin commons didn't exist....

 

[InsaneHawkJJP]

Hired hit man.

 

[Old_wrestling_fan]

I would invent cell phones and/or some key technology related to them. This way no Millennial could swipe left without me getting a royalty check.

 

[TJ8869]

Could you imagine buying land in the Destin area in 1985. Mid bay bridge and Destin commons didn't exist....

My aunt and uncle moved from Iowa to Florida in the early 80s. They considered Destin because you could buy a house for practically nothing. But they decided to buy elsewhere because at that time there wasn’t even a grocery store there.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

Not quite what the OP asked, but ...

My parents set aside $10,000 for me to go to college in 1973. My parents also had a vacation home in Arkansas and my Dad was fascinated by Walmart.

If he had put the $10,000 in Walmart in 1970 for it's IPO is would be worth $170 million (in Aug 22).

 

[Huey Grey]

I'd put all my disposable income into apple/microsoft/gap

Microsoft - 39 Year Stock Price History | MSFT

Historical daily share price chart and data for Microsoft since 1986 adjusted for splits and dividends. The latest closing stock price for Microsoft as of January 17, 2025 is <strong>429.03</strong>. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>The all-time high Microsoft stock closing price...

www.macrotrends.net

Apple - 45 Year Stock Price History | AAPL

Historical daily share price chart and data for Apple since 1980 adjusted for splits and dividends. The latest closing stock price for Apple as of January 17, 2025 is <strong>229.98</strong>. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>The all-time high Apple stock closing price was...

www.macrotrends.net

| MacroTrends

www.macrotrends.net

Sell the gap stock around 2000.

Unfortunately my 20 years old self was more interested in chicks and booze and lived paycheck to paycheck.

Microsoft stock

Edit - It wasn't public until 1986. If you put $50,000 into it then, you'd have close to 500,000 shares now, generating dividends of over $1.3MM annually. The stock, itself, would be worth almost $120MM.

I could live on that.

Wouldn't buying Bitcoin be easier and more profitable?

 

[themelrosemauler]

You’d have to start by getting your bank roll going with a menial jobs and sports betting. Move to Vegas and win at~ 4 out 7 bets moving from casino to casino. Once you get cash flow then land and stocks. Gotta keep a low profile so the time lords don’t come after you.

 

[Bonerfarts]

Buy AAPL and MSFT. Maybe make a few sport bets on the side. Also pretend I wrote songs that were popular in the future (Sorry Nirvana) and live like a rock star.

 

[ConvenientParking]

I wouldn't even hesitate if someone handed me cocaine in 1985. No fent in the coke supply. Worst you have to worry about is it being cut with bathtub speed.

 

[dgordo]

 

[cfbfan23]

Wouldn't buying Bitcoin be easier and more profitable?

OP wants us to transport back to 1985, not 2010.

It's not easier to buy bitcoin than a publicly traded stock. It's more difficult to sell in large amounts and not affect the price.

It likely would be more profitable (depending on when I bought and sold), but I'd actually have to sell it to get any funds, as it does not provide a dividend.

 

[Flie]

I would release hit after hit as the new musical genius of the 80s.

 

[TJ8869]

Not sure what I would do for the first 10 years. But in August 1995 I would put every dollar I had accumulated on Northwestern to win the Big Ten.

 

[BubsFinn]

Start off by betting big on two or three Super Bowls. After that, land is the way to go. Maybe I buy into a couple small start-up companies like Dell and Oracle.

 

[Colonoscopy]

Not sure what I would do for the first 10 years. But in August 1995 I would put every dollar I had accumulated on Northwestern to win the Big Ten.

The question I have, though, is whether or not your presence in the world would cause ripples that would change some of these events.

Like if you made a few big bets and won, you're going to get noticed, possibly get widespread media attention. Is that enough of a ripple to start changing outcomes in the games you bet on?

I would think something like the tech sector, you know, the trajectory of Apple or Microsoft, would less effected.

I guess I would just lay really low while I made my moves.

 

[joelbc1]

I’d have invested more $$ in my 401k/Roth plans. I’d have invested more when Dems were in office and been more skidish when Repubbers (Junior and Trump) were in charge. Boys I am telling you, those Bill Clinton years were pure gold!

 

[Nole Lou]

Given everything you know right now. You're starting out as a broke 20 year old.

How do you become fabulously wealthy?

What parcels of future knowledge would you be able to exploit?

I'm thinking this isn't quite as easy as people might imagine. One consideration being that your arrival (and actions) might cause ripples that would disrupt the future you know.

It's cliche, but I think I would start with sports betting. I think I could remember the results of enough games to make cash. But even that is harder than people think, because you can't just win every time. You can't just keep beating your local bookie for very long. Plus I bet we'd remember fewer games than we think...you'd go vast stretches without games in which you remembered the outcome (baseball regular season, etc).

The safer version than trying to lay bets down yourself (I think) would be to partner with a big time sports gambler that would know how to lay down serious bets without drawing attention. But how do you explain what you know? My guess is that in 1985 you could convince him that it was a computer program you'd design...you could explain that for the vast majority of games it couldn't produce a dependable winner, but in just certain cases the data would trigger an absolute sure thing, and you would sell it to him when it did.

Investing in microsoft and land is a no brainer, but where do you get the seed money? And besides, how do you live, and live well, while your land or stock increases in value over 40 years? Plus, how many of us have our entire valuable skill set in something that would be nearly valueless in 1985? A lot of us would be mopping floors, at least to start.

It's pretty interesting to think about, if you legit started with nothing, how to manipulate your knowledge into a plus lifestyle without it taking a decade or more to realize. Short of sports betting, how is your knowledge helping you really profit within the first six months, year, five years?

Honestly, the most sure fire way to make bank, although it could take a few years, would probably be to start a cult, given your gift for "prophesy", depending how good your memory was. That would probably only work for those of us in our 50s that would have enough memories of things large and small to pull from. Like, if I was transferred to 1955 or something, I would have some general beats of world history to pull from, but not enough.

 

[SolarHawk]

Cocaine

 

[West Duval Nole]

You're starting out as a broke 20 year old.

Define broke. Homeless, unemployed? Live with parents/ in college? Employed making minimum wage?

 

[Colonoscopy]

Define broke. Homeless, unemployed? Live with parents/ in college? Employed making minimum wage?

Like you just rolled into a new town. I'll spot you 50 bucks. Basically nothing. Have to build a life. And you didn't arrive with anything but the shirt on your back and what's in your head right now. You weren't told to prepare for the mission, so no master plan.

 

[VodkaSam]

Buy AAPL and MSFT. Maybe make a few sport bets on the side. Also pretend I wrote songs that were popular in the future (Sorry Nirvana) and live like a rock star.

This is what I’d always wished I’d done in the mid 80s…Microsoft and Apple stock.

 

[VodkaSam]

I think I would start with sports betting. I think I could remember the results of enough games to make cash. But even that is harder than people think, because you can't just win every time. Plus I bet we'd remember fewer games than we think...you'd go vast stretches without games in which you remembered the outcome

You’d just need to remember to take your sports almanac book with you like Biff did

 

[onlyTheObvious]

Sports betting is the obvious choice.

I think the Twins were 100-1 in 1987.

If you knew the outcomes you could make insane money. Makes hundreds of millions in no time at all. Can you imagine hitting on 14 game nfl parlays every single week?

Would you know lottery drawing numbers?

If that knowledge isn’t at your disposal Apple, Microsoft would be my choices.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

Wouldn't buying Bitcoin be easier and more profitable?

I don't think bitcoin existed in 1985 but I could be wrong

 

[Nole Lou]

Question...do you know its coming and have time to prepare/research? Or do you just wake up there tomorrow unprepared?

I'm assuming you can only take your mind and skills and can't take a sports almanac or a cell phone to reverse engineer.

But if you knew it was coming, I thought of a possible score that could set you up with a big lump sum to start...reward money. If taken by surprise, it could be pretty hard to go by memory, depending on how much you are into crime. I think at that time the Green River Killer and the Golden State Killer were active, and I would know their names...I have no idea what reward might have been out on them, or whether they could even be arrested or convicted if you just named them, in the pre-DNA era.

But if you could research it out ahead of time, I bet you could find a few perfect cases...with $10k+ in reward money or something. A fugitive case like Ted Bundy might be perfect...now we know his steps, you could just be in the right place at the right time to "see him and call in a tip".

You might be able to pull that off a couple times, in different parts of the country, over a year or two, and get your seed money without too much messing with the timeline.

 

[Colonoscopy]

It's cliche, but I think I would start with sports betting. I think I could remember the results of enough games to make cash. But even that is harder than people think, because you can't just win every time. You can't just keep beating your local bookie for very long. Plus I bet we'd remember fewer games than we think...you'd go vast stretches without games in which you remembered the outcome (baseball regular season, etc).

The safer version than trying to lay bets down yourself (I think) would be to partner with a big time sports gambler that would know how to lay down serious bets without drawing attention. But how do you explain what you know? My guess is that in 1985 you could convince him that it was a computer program you'd design...you could explain that for the vast majority of games it couldn't produce a dependable winner, but in just certain cases the data would trigger an absolute sure thing, and you would sell it to him when it did.

Investing in microsoft and land is a no brainer, but where do you get the seed money? And besides, how do you live, and live well, while your land or stock increases in value over 40 years? Plus, how many of us have our entire valuable skill set in something that would be nearly valueless in 1985? A lot of us would be mopping floors, at least to start.

It's pretty interesting to think about, if you legit started with nothing, how to manipulate your knowledge into a plus lifestyle without it taking a decade or more to realize. Short of sports betting, how is your knowledge helping you really profit within the first six months, year, five years?

Honestly, the most sure fire way to make bank, although it could take a few years, would probably be to start a cult, given your gift for "prophesy", depending how good your memory was. That would probably only work for those of us in our 50s that would have enough memories of things large and small to pull from. Like, if I was transferred to 1955 or something, I would have some general beats of world history to pull from, but not enough.

Good post, basically where I was going with it. You would have whatever skills and knowledge you've accumulated thus far in life, so hopefully some of those would be transferable and you'd at least get past a dead-end job pretty quick. Plus, there is always schooling and everything you've learned about it and where your focus ought to be.

I would think you could make a good bit of money on bets if you had the right sort of knowledge. Personally, I notice that I tend to remember generalities more than specifics, so that gives me pause.

I would think, though, that you ought to be able to at least get a bunch of media attention and then $$$ via what you can remember about the future, and what you can predict in the short term. Although as noted before, I start wonder how much this attention might start changing the future you predicted.

Like, how much of 1986 would you be able to foretell off the top of your head if interviewed in 1985?

1986 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Colonoscopy]

Question...do you know its coming and have time to prepare/research? Or do you just wake up there tomorrow unprepared?

I'm assuming you can only take your mind and skills and can't take a sports almanac or a cell phone to reverse engineer.

But if you knew it was coming, I thought of a possible score that could set you up with a big lump sum to start...reward money. If taken by surprise, it could be pretty hard to go by memory, depending on how much you are into crime. I think at that time the Green River Killer and the Golden State Killer were active, and I would know their names...I have no idea what reward might have been out on them, or whether they could even be arrested or convicted if you just named them, in the pre-DNA era.

But if you could research it out ahead of time, I bet you could find a few perfect cases...with $10k+ in reward money or something. A fugitive case like Ted Bundy might be perfect...now we know his steps, you could just be in the right place at the right time to "see him and call in a tip".

You might be able to pull that off a couple times, in different parts of the country, over a year or two, and get your seed money without too much messing with the timeline.

Unprepared. Nothing but what's in your head. That's what I had imagined.

 

[Colonoscopy]

Sports betting is the obvious choice.

I think the Twins were 100-1 in 1987.

If you knew the outcomes you could make insane money. Makes hundreds of millions in no time at all. Can you imagine hitting on 14 game nfl parlays every single week?

Would you know lottery drawing numbers?

If that knowledge isn’t at your disposal Apple, Microsoft would be my choices.

You have all that floating around in your head? No computers, papers or other bits of information.

 

[Gus is dead]

I know AAPL stock was very close to 4 dollars around 2001-2 sometime. You’d even make a killing going back that far.

 

[bagdropper]

Simply put, I would not spend as much money partying as I did. I'm lumping in all the peripheral expenses/bad life decisions involved with that.

I mean, sure. I had a blast. But my gawd, so many horrible mistakes financially along the way were indirectly The Cost Of Partying.

I'd be retired today, comfortably, at 60. That's the ultimate end result.

 

[ICWestfan]

Define broke. Homeless, unemployed? Live with parents/ in college? Employed making minimum wage?

Well, in 1985 I got married and we were living paycheck to paycheck so basically broke. We post dated checks so they didn't bounce. And while not homeless or unemployed, we were technically broke.

I had a chance to invest in a land purchase in 1985 but was too prideful to ask either my parents or the in laws for a $2000 loan. Thats how broke we were. If I had done that, and all the stuff that came after that purchase, I'd be fabulously wealthy. Well, not fabulously, but wealthier than we are now.

 

[NewVicHawkeye]

Buy stuff at auctions and garage sales etc as usual.

 

[GOHOX69]

2400 baud modems bisches.

 

[GOHOX69]

Well, in 1985 I got married and we were living paycheck to paycheck so basically broke. We post dated checks so they didn't bounce. And while not homeless or unemployed, we were technically broke.

I had a chance to invest in a land purchase in 1985 but was too prideful to ask either my parents or the in laws for a $2000 loan. Thats how broke we were. If I had done that, and all the stuff that came after that purchase, I'd be fabulously wealthy. Well, not fabulously, but wealthier than we are now.

If you support West, your life is dope my friend. All of us Trojans are winners, some more so than others.

 

[Fan In Black]

Microsoft stock

Edit - It wasn't public until 1986. If you put $50,000 into it then, you'd have close to 500,000 shares now, generating dividends of over $1.3MM annually. The stock, itself, would be worth almost $120MM.

I could live on that.

this. I would get a bartending job. Or 2. try to find a GF to mooch off ( free place to stay ) and put all my money into Microsoft or Apple. Later Amazon.

 

[ICWestfan]

If you support West, your life is dope my friend. All of us Trojans are winners, some more so than others.

I actually graduated from Cow Pie high. And yes, City is shitty.