This is how rich you’d be if you bought Apple stock instead of its products

People don’t usually regret their first bit of exciting hardware. On the contrary, the majority of folks have strong nostalgic feelings about their earliest computer, game console, audio player, or phone.

It’s not that they remind us of how far we’ve come technologically (although that’s true), they’re more reminiscent of our childhood in general, the carefree times before we became serious adults.

For instance, I still have deeply fond feelings about my first Compaq Presario desktop computer, Sony Walkman, JVC dual cassette hi-fi stereo system, and yellow Ericsson flip phone. I’m sure everyone has items like this in their lives.

All this got me thinking. What would it take for us to give up those memories? Money, probably. Lots of it. So… what if instead of buying an old gadget when it was released, we bought the product’s worth in company stock instead? Would that be enough to overcome our nostalgia?

To…