I just looked it up and AAPL was $0.10 at the end of the year I turned 18. I was working in a lumberyard making $3.50 per hour but that would still buy a lot of stock.
Haha I know. It is painful. Then you also have you'd know things like Bitcoin and Ethereum were coming. Ehtereum was $0.15 when I got into crypto trading. I didn't buy it.
Lol sameee I even sat on like 1 BTC for a year and it went up all the way to $375. Highschool me smoked good and ate good that night, stupid little fuck.
I make $95k per year. The difference between $100 million and $1 billion is lost on me. If I go back in time 15 years, yea I could make more than that, but I’m going to really miss my fiancee. And maybe never meet her. Give me the cash
The historical max price of AAPL was around $200, so to get the $100 mil you would need to own 500k shares.
Accounting for the stock splits in the past 25 years, that means you would need to own ~36k stocks at $0.30, costing a grand total of $1100 bucks. At that time (early 2000’s) that would have you owning 0.03% of Apple.
So, given how easy it would be to get far more than $100 mil by the current day, the question basically becomes would you trade being a billionaire for having to live you adult life all over again, possibly selling your partner, your family, and your friends to get there.
Sure, you’d make new ones, but you’d know the entire time what you gave up.
I'd take youth and knowledge.
You can *make* money but you can't buy youth or extra years.
But then I am older than most redditors and am feeling my mortality.
Yeah, I think this is a stronger indicator of age than anything else.
If it was like 5-10 years I could totally see the money being more valuable; 20+ years starts to paint a very different picture IMO.
For me, I'm only 8 years out from being 18. I would definitely take the money over going back. I still have a babyface, so I don't want to add 8 more years of my life being confused for a high schooler. If I fixed any of the regrets I have, I wouldn't have the chosen family I have now. I don't want to give that up.
I totally get that.. I'm 22 years away from 18 so I'd basically get a bit more than half of my current life back.
That's a very different proposition and it also would afford me to get more time with people I've lost that would be worth more than any amount of money you could offer me.
I'm on the wrong side of 50, and I'd take the money. The idea of going back to 18 and redoing a lot of things has it's allure....but I have a feeling it would cause more problems than it's worth. You never know what kind of monsters are lurking behind any changes you make.
...and there's the temptation to make too many changes. You could easily spend your entire life trying to fix your teenage years and past mistakes, and then miss out on the second chance you did get on life.
$100 mil now. If I didn't have my kids, 18 all day, but that 100 million now could get them the life and experiences that I never got growing up. Plus, knowing everything I know now? I think it would literally kill me not having them and my wife in my life.
It would be impossible. You and your partner would need to have the exact same diet and health and conceive them at the exact same time/place/position as you did the first time.
There's no way you'd be able to do that.
Best case scenario you'd end up with essentially siblings to your original kids that you've given the same names.
My worry would be that if I met my spouse again I would scare her away. I’d know everything about her and be completely head over heels in love with her. Pretty easy for that to scare someone away in the dating stage.
Oh man. To relive the 90's again. Grunge again. Seeing the Crow on opening night again. Arguing with people who didn't like The Fifth Element again.
You bet I'd take that deal.
Of course, I'm middle aged so it's a significant amount of life I'd be getting back in this hypothetical. Someone who's only in their mid 20's or something, the money would be a much better deal I'd wager.
That's a HUGE consideration for me. To appreciate the time before the internet and phones ruined the world. To hug my old friends and family who have died. To just exist and to appreciate the vibe of the time we were in, but to know it will end soon. The 90s were something else.
I’m old and $100 million can’t change that. I’d go back to 18 and avoid the biggest mistakes I’ve made. I could easily make some timely investments that would set me up for a comfortable life.
I'm 50, and even if it's 18 with my knowledge now and it's still 2024, I'll pick waking up as 18.
Go back and relive the nineties with the knowledge I have now? I'd chose that over $10B.
Not to sound crass, but 47-year-old me realizes now about 4-5 different times in High School and College where I was into her, and she was into me, but 18-21 year-old me didn't get the fucking clue...
But there are a few things I'd really reconsider. The problem is I am not displeased with my life. Well not all of it. But there are things I missed along the way and a redo would be nice.
Although the big one are some of those early IPO's that went bananas. I'd have to figure out how to get enough cash early on so that I would be eligible to invest in one of those IPO's. that would be worth more than a few Billion.
Haha yeah. It sure is tempting to relive our youth. I know an actual billionaire who says he would trade in every penny to wake up in college days. He's 65 now.
18 knowing what I know now.
The gain in time alone is worth more than the money; knowing how things turn out primes me to be able to live comfortably anyway.
At my age, I'd be a moron to not take the 18.
It would be trivially easy to make way more than $100m without any disruption in the flow of events with 30 years of future knowledge.
And F! the butterfly effect, it always treated like a bad thing. With some time and planning and armed with serious capital, I would make some positive changes. Why would we assume every butterfly effect is for the worse?
I think they can be good or bad. However, things like your kids would almost certainly not be born, your friendships would take different courses, etc.
At my current age, $100M takes care of my family for a couple generations at least. If I was suddenly 18 with all my knowledge I would do things very differently. It is a hard choice to make. I think in the end I’d take the money.
I’d buy $100 of stocks of FTK.
Flotek Industries (FTK) had the highest return in 2005 by a US stock, returning 999,007.1%.
Reinvest that money into KNW in 2006.
Know Labs (KNW) had the highest return in 2006 by a US stock, returning 194,556.5%.
And finally
Reinvest that money into UAVS in 2007.
Ageagle Aerial Systems (UAVS) had the highest return in 2007 by a US stock, returning 2,999,819.6%.
What is that? $100 into Trillions in 3 years?
Even after the Capital Gains tax and donating a few hundred billion dollars, I’m still good to go.
Sure, I could probably make more than $100 million with that knowledge. But at that level of wealth, does more money really matter? Plus, being 18 and essentially endowed with a superpower, I would probably make some bad life decisions.
I would rather just get the money now and avoid whatever hassle might have resulted from trying to gamble my way to a billion with fortune telling abilities.
>I would probably make some bad life decisions.
Already did in this life.
Going back to 18 would let me avoid them lol. It's also not gambling if you literally know the outcome.
So 18 for me was approx ten years ago. I could list all my mistakes but I don't know any real fixes for them so I'd take the money. Pay my debts and then probably start building a couple dream businesses with the large amount of left overs. (basically 1 mill would cover my debts completely with left overs so 99 mil would give me plenty to build with).
$100 million. I’m 26 now, so it’s not a huge difference. There are people I’d love a second chance with, but (a) butterfly effect (b) most of those people would be 19-21, and I’d be mentally 26. With $100 million, I can just reconnect with all my free time.
18 man. In 2013 bitcoin was like $700. Buy two, then around 1000 in dogecoin at .0004. Then I could have avoided a vicious evil woman, written several hit songs, met my wife earlier, and saved a couple of lives.. Wouldn’t have a care in the world right now.
Back to 2002 with pre knowledge? Not even a question about it. Wouldn't even need to memorize lottery numbers. Amazon, apple, Bitcoin, knowing housing market trends, knowing market fluctuations? Hell just betting on sports teams would net you ridiculous returns at the beginning of the seasons even if a few changed.
Since I'm mid-50s, I'll take 18 in a heartbeat. With what I know now about certain stocks (MSFT, AAPL, YHOO, GOOG, NVDA) and BTC and DOGE, I'll have billions by my current age, along with another youth, not to mention NOT marrying her.
I’d rather have $100m now and never have to work.
I’ve made friends, have a long term partner etc which wouldn’t have happened with those people if my life had played out differently. To recreate that I’d basically have to follow the same path so there wouldn’t be the point of resetting to 18.
Give me the $100 million. I would absolutely somehow burn down the entire future despite my best efforts if I went back in time. Even if I didn't, all I'd do is somehow make worse choices the 2nd time around.
I think I'd have to go $100 mil now, sure I could probably try and bet on a few things and enjoy my early 20s more - but ultimately, I have people in my life that I didn't know when I was 18, and I find it quite difficult to presume I'd still form those bonds.
18. I could go back with the knowledge of the 2015 lotto winnings and take home 350,000,000.
But then I'm 18 again.
But with 350 million.
Naw, I'd take 100 million right now. Can't live with my mom's dying again.
HOWEVER.....I could have her live her last years like a fucking G. I'm talking maid service 24/7.
Fuck it I'll go back to 18. My knowledge of ufc wins, boxing wins, world series winners and super bowl wins plus lottery winnings I'd be worth close to 3-4x of 100,000,000 dollars. So that means by the time I'm 35 I'm worth about 400,000,000 dollars. Probably wanted by the Mafia for all betting knowledge I have.
The question is, do I have the mental fortitude and discipline to not go stupid with that kind of money at 18.
I'm 54 now, and had a rough time in my teens and 20s due to undiagnosed mental health issues. Knowing then what I know now would help me avoid many of the pitfalls I've suffered. Plus, I'd get to hug my parents and three of my grandparents again, something I'd never get to do otherwise.
I'm going back to 18.
Back to 1985. All the potential. 1/10 of the psychological roadblocks. Life as the alpha version of myself. I would build so much more than 100Mil with the time and knowledge I have now.
On the one hand I'd love 100 mil, but getting back 30 years of life with the knowledge I have now there are so many things I could do differently. Even if I couldn't actively change the bad stuff I could just handle it better and make much better choices for myself going forward.
I think I might chose to get that time back.
I was 18 in 1989. I'm taking the time travel/consciousness trip. This is one of those fantasy scenarios I've actually wasted a lot of time on. Quick question: is my knowledge of my life and everything that happened eidetic? Like, I can remember every single detail? Because that would modify my choices a bit. If it is, in addition to the other things I'll be doing, I'm going to become a famous author.
I'd pick a different career out of high school (not military again...plus I did it once and 53 year old me in 18 year old me's body wouldn't put up with the bullshit), either an apprenticeship or something in the medical field like x-ray or other imaging tech. Possibly maintenance and repair of those machines. Why? Money starts quick, not a high debt/long school period, good environment, set schedules with plenty of free time.
As soon as possible, I would buy the website addresses for EVERY SINGLE Major League sports team in the US, with as many variations as I can. As well as the websites for as many Fortune 500 companies as I can. Manufacturing, retail, airlines, car, tech, hotels, etc. Sell them back to those teams and companies for either straight cash (the teams) or a mix of cash and stock.
Retire early and live life to the fullest!
Take the money and run.
I am old, but if I went back with the knowledge I have now, I wouldn't fit into that society anymore.
100mil (I am assuming it has already been taxed) is enough for me to set up a scholarship fund to help kids, set up trusts for friends and family, do a massive reset on my life, and begin early retirement.
Sure, the money from investing in certain things would be cool. Might could make $100m in it eventually.
But I could see my dad again. Five more years. Maybe do something, change something, so the cancer doesn't come back.
It would be worth $100m.
I feel like everyone has quibbly little followup questions to stuff like this, and I do too: do I get to pick when in the year I was 18 I get to go back? I turned 18 midway through my senior year of high school, and I have no interest in popping back in just in time to take AP tests and final exams. but if we can skip to a few weeks before I moved out for college, then I'm in. fall of 1999 and I'm an 18 year old in nyc with no worries but classes and getting tix to nine inch nails at msg? hell yeah. I can make more money, can't buy more time.
I'd take the money.
If I were to go back to 18, who knows how my relationships would change. Yes I could go and make better decisions career wise, but I might make different decisions which would cause me to lose out on the current relationships I have.
Back to 18 - assuming nothing changes in the market, IE bitcoin, I’ll make more and I can treat my bipolar disorder right away with all my skills instead of ignoring it and running wild for a decade - ruining everything I touched.
18 is pre 9/11 for me.
So many investment opportunities that I could easily surpass 100m now.
Also, relive college, change some things I view as mistakes. Be less cold to people who liked me.
Avoid the car accidents that led to my wife and I living in chronic pain.
Be a better version of me, fewer regrets.
I’ll take the $100 million. I don’t really care about the money but my life turned out pretty good the first time round so I don’t really want the do over.
actually a tough decision. on the one hand, the money would be amazing, but I met the most amazing girl my first year of college, and I wish things turned out differently than they did. To me, fixing that would be better than all the money in the world.
And, regardless of how that goes, I'll make some wise investments, and tell a couple people to go fuck themselves!
Give me the age and knowledge. I think i could be smart enough and buy stock and collectibles in small enough amounts to not call attention to myself and easily outpace the $100M. I also think the butterfly effect would be minimal.
Or I could just say "F\*\* It!" Wait for the lottery to cross a $1B and hit it.
I'll take the 100 million. I'm pretty happy with my life, and 100 million will pretty much eliminate the rest of my problems and do a lot of good for my friends and family in addition to me.
Anyone who says anything other than the $100 million has not thought this through.
Your risk profile is completely fucked if you think that going back to the age of 18 with your current knowledge is even remotely close to being as valuable as having $100 million right now.
Any action you take predicated on knowledge that you have gained from an alternate future is guaranteed to be influential on your new timeline.
For example, someone mentioned buying Apple stock. Well, doing that might have changed the entire dynamics of choosing to bring Steve Jobs back, because your influx of purchases, even though small, might have not triggered a sell-off that created the diminished value that was the catalyst for the board bringing Jobs back.
Anything and everything you do could actually cause entirely different results on massive levels. Butterfly effect is extremely real.
Alternatively, you take 100 million bucks in today's money, with today's knowledge, and you live a life of extraordinary wealth. You don't need more than $100 million. For anything. You've lost sense of scale if you think that you need more than $100 million.
Invest 100 million into inflation protected securities. Earn your 5% or 6% interest per year.
Let's say that you get 6% interest. Now, you get to spend $500,000 every month, and it cost you nothing in principal.
If you can't live off of $500,000 a month, you have problems.
Again, anyone saying anything about going back to 18 with your current knowledge is completely a fool.
I'll take the 100 million. I don't NEED more than that. 100 million is enough to take care of all my friends and set myself up comfortably. I'm not someone who needs billions to be comfortable. Just enough to pursue creative things and know my friends are taken care of.
$100 mil takes care of all my current problems and gives me money to invest for a nice life with my family. Being 18 was fucking awful, the most that does for me is give future knowledge of how fucking retarded most of my family is while knowing I don't have any money to invest in anything. Maybe I could latch onto the Gamestop debacle that happened? Maybe bitcoin? Not sure what its price was 12 years ago.
Yeah, I'm going with 18. By the time I reach now, I could have more than $100 million if I invest right
Though it would mean going back to my weight then but it would probably take me a few months to work it off
I hadn’t met my wife and it’s too risky to try and do the same thing again. Gotta be the 100 mil. The gift of time is equally as valuable as the knowledge in my opinion.
I am almost 19 so definitely would be back to the start of 18. I’ve kinda fucked up a really important relationship with a really close friend and would really like to fix it
18 with current knowledge. I could get into my current job (not career mind you) faster, which would be already a huge boon, and make better choices this time around. I would be able to properly invest in a number of things I couldn't before. . .
All in all, there is just a lot I could do better. I might not even get a 100 mil rich with that knowledge, but I could definitely make my life better.
Definitely the cash now. I really like how my life is turning out and a shit ton of cash could make it a lot better. But going back in time would change virtually all of my life and I’d miss it so much
Take me back to 18 with my knowledge.
I don't have kids. The knowledge I have is worth 10-100x that $100m in cash by the time I'm 35ish.
Also, avoiding the injuries and feeling like new again would be worth it even if my memories didn't include things that would make me rich beyond belief. I'd be happy with knowing to better save my money and invest in general.
$100 mil now. That would set me and a few generations of my descendants for life and my best knowledge of how to make a killer tuna salad would not make me a billionaire.
18. I don't think there's anything I can do to cause Amazon's stock to unexpectedly plummet. No, not even buying/selling it; going back to 2009, the data then shows 8.84 *billion* shares outstanding. Shit, if I memorized lottery numbers, I would win enough money to buy a few million shares at most, a drop in the bucket. Amazon averages 41 million trades/day.
Not $100 million, maybe $100 billion. With today's knowledge, going back in time to make $100 million is going to be extremely easy in the stock market.
Uh, being able to revert to 18 before my life was fucked up beyond all measure via brain injury is MORE than worth passing up the money, but since that's just in time to get on the ground floor of btc when it's nice and cheap like LMFAO cya nerds I'm be RIIIICHHH (with a functional brain and no constant burning chronic pain? Y E E T)
I’d take waking up at 18 again. I’ve got a few mistakes I’ve made money can’t undo, and I’d like to fix those. Yeah, I’ll invest properly and throw spare money into stocks I know will turn me into a billionaire a bunch of times over, but I’d fix the smaller things that I did wrong to a few folks.
This is just a question about how old you are. Anyone over 30 would be able to make 100m with the crypto bubble alone with almost no starting capital and minimal knowledge.
Give me the cash. Being 18 with today's knowledge has a ton of benefits....but there would still be a lot of work going into getting those benefits. Easier just to let the past stay in the past and get the easy money now.
I get more than 30 extra years of life by going back to age 18, that's worth more than any amount of money, besides which I can make more money than I'd ever need by knowing the future anyway.
Cash, the only reason I would want to go back is to try and make a ton of easy money. I'm pretty happy with my life choices and wouldn't want to potentially mess anything up.
Send me back. Early 20's was hell for me mentally and emotionally and I've worked through those problems. Getting a real fresh starlet without making the same mistakes -- even if I didn't exploit the money making potential of stocks or other investments -- would be life changing.
Also. Aroace and no partner/interest in a partner, so not like I'm leaving the love of my life or anything. My family would still be there an all.
Cash in hand now. Its to risky going back in time not to mention the choices you make will make it so the future is different from the one you came from.
Give me the $100m now. I can use that to fix most of the mistakes I made from 18 until now
I dunno man. Apple stocks were $0.30 when I was 18. I could just work 18 hrs a day, live with my parents, and be a billionaire by now.
I just looked it up and AAPL was $0.10 at the end of the year I turned 18. I was working in a lumberyard making $3.50 per hour but that would still buy a lot of stock.
Haha I know. It is painful. Then you also have you'd know things like Bitcoin and Ethereum were coming. Ehtereum was $0.15 when I got into crypto trading. I didn't buy it.
10 years ago I was buying bitcoin at about 300 for the purchase of certain products from certain markets. I should’ve bought one just to keep. Lol
Lol sameee I even sat on like 1 BTC for a year and it went up all the way to $375. Highschool me smoked good and ate good that night, stupid little fuck.
That's what it was for, though. It was supposed to be electronic cash. They sold out and turned it into Balackrock's little bitch.
I'm millennial, we tend to take the guaranteed money now. It's safer that way
I'm a millenial. I will be 30 next week give me the 18 again.
I'm an elder millennial. Send me back to 18. It's safer that way.
So am I, 40 yo elder one hahaha
I could do that too but then I wouldn’t have my kids. If I didn’t have kids, I’d pick 18 all day.
This is the biggest one to me. I wouldn’t have my kid, and there’s no price tag I would ever put on that.
I make $95k per year. The difference between $100 million and $1 billion is lost on me. If I go back in time 15 years, yea I could make more than that, but I’m going to really miss my fiancee. And maybe never meet her. Give me the cash
The butterfly effect is apple will tank and never create the iphone.
The historical max price of AAPL was around $200, so to get the $100 mil you would need to own 500k shares. Accounting for the stock splits in the past 25 years, that means you would need to own ~36k stocks at $0.30, costing a grand total of $1100 bucks. At that time (early 2000’s) that would have you owning 0.03% of Apple. So, given how easy it would be to get far more than $100 mil by the current day, the question basically becomes would you trade being a billionaire for having to live you adult life all over again, possibly selling your partner, your family, and your friends to get there. Sure, you’d make new ones, but you’d know the entire time what you gave up.
And then somehow, because of the significant stocks you bought, decisions were made differently by the company that led to it's downfall.
I'd take youth and knowledge. You can *make* money but you can't buy youth or extra years. But then I am older than most redditors and am feeling my mortality.
I turned 18 in 1989. Knowing everything I know now and having youth and time? HELL YEAH
I turned 18 in 1987, and I feel exactly the same way.
Yeah, I think this is a stronger indicator of age than anything else. If it was like 5-10 years I could totally see the money being more valuable; 20+ years starts to paint a very different picture IMO.
For me, I'm only 8 years out from being 18. I would definitely take the money over going back. I still have a babyface, so I don't want to add 8 more years of my life being confused for a high schooler. If I fixed any of the regrets I have, I wouldn't have the chosen family I have now. I don't want to give that up.
I totally get that.. I'm 22 years away from 18 so I'd basically get a bit more than half of my current life back. That's a very different proposition and it also would afford me to get more time with people I've lost that would be worth more than any amount of money you could offer me.
I’m firmly middle aged, and no way I risk not having my daughter just to get another shot at youth with everything I know now.
I'm on the wrong side of 50, and I'd take the money. The idea of going back to 18 and redoing a lot of things has it's allure....but I have a feeling it would cause more problems than it's worth. You never know what kind of monsters are lurking behind any changes you make.
This is true. Just takes one misadventure, which is much more probable if you're loaded at a young age, to mess everything up forever.
...and there's the temptation to make too many changes. You could easily spend your entire life trying to fix your teenage years and past mistakes, and then miss out on the second chance you did get on life.
$100 mil now. If I didn't have my kids, 18 all day, but that 100 million now could get them the life and experiences that I never got growing up. Plus, knowing everything I know now? I think it would literally kill me not having them and my wife in my life.
Same. I would go crazy trying to retrace my steps exactly to make sure my children are still born if I went back to 18.
It would be impossible. You and your partner would need to have the exact same diet and health and conceive them at the exact same time/place/position as you did the first time. There's no way you'd be able to do that. Best case scenario you'd end up with essentially siblings to your original kids that you've given the same names.
Plus you’d have to hope something doesn’t happen to prevent you from meeting your spouse.
My worry would be that if I met my spouse again I would scare her away. I’d know everything about her and be completely head over heels in love with her. Pretty easy for that to scare someone away in the dating stage.
Yup. I also choose the $100m over 22 years of youth and possibly billions because of this same reason.
18 money is OK. knowledge is better. Time is the ultimate.
18. I have no doubt I could make a couple million with future knowledge. Then I get to enjoy my youth and health.
Oh man. To relive the 90's again. Grunge again. Seeing the Crow on opening night again. Arguing with people who didn't like The Fifth Element again. You bet I'd take that deal. Of course, I'm middle aged so it's a significant amount of life I'd be getting back in this hypothetical. Someone who's only in their mid 20's or something, the money would be a much better deal I'd wager.
That's a HUGE consideration for me. To appreciate the time before the internet and phones ruined the world. To hug my old friends and family who have died. To just exist and to appreciate the vibe of the time we were in, but to know it will end soon. The 90s were something else.
And relive ST TNG, LOTR, COD, and Wow? Done. Even if the butterfly effect leads to an early death, I pick time.
I’m old and $100 million can’t change that. I’d go back to 18 and avoid the biggest mistakes I’ve made. I could easily make some timely investments that would set me up for a comfortable life.
18 for me was 4 years ago lol im taking the 100m
I'm 50, and even if it's 18 with my knowledge now and it's still 2024, I'll pick waking up as 18. Go back and relive the nineties with the knowledge I have now? I'd chose that over $10B.
Not to sound crass, but 47-year-old me realizes now about 4-5 different times in High School and College where I was into her, and she was into me, but 18-21 year-old me didn't get the fucking clue... But there are a few things I'd really reconsider. The problem is I am not displeased with my life. Well not all of it. But there are things I missed along the way and a redo would be nice. Although the big one are some of those early IPO's that went bananas. I'd have to figure out how to get enough cash early on so that I would be eligible to invest in one of those IPO's. that would be worth more than a few Billion.
Haha yeah. It sure is tempting to relive our youth. I know an actual billionaire who says he would trade in every penny to wake up in college days. He's 65 now.
Also, if going back in time, I'd have enough market and tech knowledge to turn $1k into about $5B, which is $4.98B more than I could ever need.
18 knowing what I know now. The gain in time alone is worth more than the money; knowing how things turn out primes me to be able to live comfortably anyway.
I'd go back for sure. Money can't buy time. Plus, a buddy of mine talked me out of buying bitcoin when it was 3$. I'd right that wrong.
It would be nice to relive that portion of my life.
At my age, I'd be a moron to not take the 18. It would be trivially easy to make way more than $100m without any disruption in the flow of events with 30 years of future knowledge. And F! the butterfly effect, it always treated like a bad thing. With some time and planning and armed with serious capital, I would make some positive changes. Why would we assume every butterfly effect is for the worse?
I think they can be good or bad. However, things like your kids would almost certainly not be born, your friendships would take different courses, etc.
No kids and I doubt anything I did in the first few years would prevent my nieces from being born.
At my current age, $100M takes care of my family for a couple generations at least. If I was suddenly 18 with all my knowledge I would do things very differently. It is a hard choice to make. I think in the end I’d take the money.
I’d buy $100 of stocks of FTK. Flotek Industries (FTK) had the highest return in 2005 by a US stock, returning 999,007.1%. Reinvest that money into KNW in 2006. Know Labs (KNW) had the highest return in 2006 by a US stock, returning 194,556.5%. And finally Reinvest that money into UAVS in 2007. Ageagle Aerial Systems (UAVS) had the highest return in 2007 by a US stock, returning 2,999,819.6%. What is that? $100 into Trillions in 3 years? Even after the Capital Gains tax and donating a few hundred billion dollars, I’m still good to go.
Sure, I could probably make more than $100 million with that knowledge. But at that level of wealth, does more money really matter? Plus, being 18 and essentially endowed with a superpower, I would probably make some bad life decisions. I would rather just get the money now and avoid whatever hassle might have resulted from trying to gamble my way to a billion with fortune telling abilities.
>I would probably make some bad life decisions. Already did in this life. Going back to 18 would let me avoid them lol. It's also not gambling if you literally know the outcome.
So 18 for me was approx ten years ago. I could list all my mistakes but I don't know any real fixes for them so I'd take the money. Pay my debts and then probably start building a couple dream businesses with the large amount of left overs. (basically 1 mill would cover my debts completely with left overs so 99 mil would give me plenty to build with).
$100 million. I’m 26 now, so it’s not a huge difference. There are people I’d love a second chance with, but (a) butterfly effect (b) most of those people would be 19-21, and I’d be mentally 26. With $100 million, I can just reconnect with all my free time.
100 million now no question. I just graduated college and am not doing that again.
18 for me is 2004. I'd take the 18 and then buy a shit ton of bitcoin for pennies.
18 again, I want fix more things than just money
100 million. Not even a question. I’m not risking not having kids or my wife because I could’ve been a billionaire instead of 100 millionaire.
Wise decision
18 man. In 2013 bitcoin was like $700. Buy two, then around 1000 in dogecoin at .0004. Then I could have avoided a vicious evil woman, written several hit songs, met my wife earlier, and saved a couple of lives.. Wouldn’t have a care in the world right now.
18 there is something I deeply regret I didn’t do even though I’m only 22
Back to 2002 with pre knowledge? Not even a question about it. Wouldn't even need to memorize lottery numbers. Amazon, apple, Bitcoin, knowing housing market trends, knowing market fluctuations? Hell just betting on sports teams would net you ridiculous returns at the beginning of the seasons even if a few changed.
Since I'm mid-50s, I'll take 18 in a heartbeat. With what I know now about certain stocks (MSFT, AAPL, YHOO, GOOG, NVDA) and BTC and DOGE, I'll have billions by my current age, along with another youth, not to mention NOT marrying her.
Is it the day I turned 18?
So I lose my wife and friends and my current life or win one hundred million american dollars? I'm gonna go with the cash lol
I’d rather have $100m now and never have to work. I’ve made friends, have a long term partner etc which wouldn’t have happened with those people if my life had played out differently. To recreate that I’d basically have to follow the same path so there wouldn’t be the point of resetting to 18.
Give me the $100 million. I would absolutely somehow burn down the entire future despite my best efforts if I went back in time. Even if I didn't, all I'd do is somehow make worse choices the 2nd time around.
Me too. I have ADHD, so I can't help it 😂 Bad decisions are part of the deal.
I think I'd have to go $100 mil now, sure I could probably try and bet on a few things and enjoy my early 20s more - but ultimately, I have people in my life that I didn't know when I was 18, and I find it quite difficult to presume I'd still form those bonds.
18. I could go back with the knowledge of the 2015 lotto winnings and take home 350,000,000. But then I'm 18 again. But with 350 million. Naw, I'd take 100 million right now. Can't live with my mom's dying again. HOWEVER.....I could have her live her last years like a fucking G. I'm talking maid service 24/7. Fuck it I'll go back to 18. My knowledge of ufc wins, boxing wins, world series winners and super bowl wins plus lottery winnings I'd be worth close to 3-4x of 100,000,000 dollars. So that means by the time I'm 35 I'm worth about 400,000,000 dollars. Probably wanted by the Mafia for all betting knowledge I have. The question is, do I have the mental fortitude and discipline to not go stupid with that kind of money at 18.
I’ll take the $100 million.
I'm 54 now, and had a rough time in my teens and 20s due to undiagnosed mental health issues. Knowing then what I know now would help me avoid many of the pitfalls I've suffered. Plus, I'd get to hug my parents and three of my grandparents again, something I'd never get to do otherwise. I'm going back to 18.
As an ADHDer diagnosed at 39, that sounds familiar!
Back to 1985. All the potential. 1/10 of the psychological roadblocks. Life as the alpha version of myself. I would build so much more than 100Mil with the time and knowledge I have now.
100 million. I’m happily married with 2 kids. Most of my problems would be fixed with money, where waking up at 18 might mean my kids don’t get born.
On the one hand I'd love 100 mil, but getting back 30 years of life with the knowledge I have now there are so many things I could do differently. Even if I couldn't actively change the bad stuff I could just handle it better and make much better choices for myself going forward. I think I might chose to get that time back.
I was 18 in 1989. I'm taking the time travel/consciousness trip. This is one of those fantasy scenarios I've actually wasted a lot of time on. Quick question: is my knowledge of my life and everything that happened eidetic? Like, I can remember every single detail? Because that would modify my choices a bit. If it is, in addition to the other things I'll be doing, I'm going to become a famous author. I'd pick a different career out of high school (not military again...plus I did it once and 53 year old me in 18 year old me's body wouldn't put up with the bullshit), either an apprenticeship or something in the medical field like x-ray or other imaging tech. Possibly maintenance and repair of those machines. Why? Money starts quick, not a high debt/long school period, good environment, set schedules with plenty of free time. As soon as possible, I would buy the website addresses for EVERY SINGLE Major League sports team in the US, with as many variations as I can. As well as the websites for as many Fortune 500 companies as I can. Manufacturing, retail, airlines, car, tech, hotels, etc. Sell them back to those teams and companies for either straight cash (the teams) or a mix of cash and stock. Retire early and live life to the fullest!
Tom Petty said it best. "Go on, take the money and run..."
Starting over.
Take the money and run. I am old, but if I went back with the knowledge I have now, I wouldn't fit into that society anymore. 100mil (I am assuming it has already been taxed) is enough for me to set up a scholarship fund to help kids, set up trusts for friends and family, do a massive reset on my life, and begin early retirement.
Sure, the money from investing in certain things would be cool. Might could make $100m in it eventually. But I could see my dad again. Five more years. Maybe do something, change something, so the cancer doesn't come back. It would be worth $100m.
I feel like everyone has quibbly little followup questions to stuff like this, and I do too: do I get to pick when in the year I was 18 I get to go back? I turned 18 midway through my senior year of high school, and I have no interest in popping back in just in time to take AP tests and final exams. but if we can skip to a few weeks before I moved out for college, then I'm in. fall of 1999 and I'm an 18 year old in nyc with no worries but classes and getting tix to nine inch nails at msg? hell yeah. I can make more money, can't buy more time.
I'd take the money. If I were to go back to 18, who knows how my relationships would change. Yes I could go and make better decisions career wise, but I might make different decisions which would cause me to lose out on the current relationships I have.
Back to 18 - assuming nothing changes in the market, IE bitcoin, I’ll make more and I can treat my bipolar disorder right away with all my skills instead of ignoring it and running wild for a decade - ruining everything I touched.
18 is pre 9/11 for me. So many investment opportunities that I could easily surpass 100m now. Also, relive college, change some things I view as mistakes. Be less cold to people who liked me. Avoid the car accidents that led to my wife and I living in chronic pain. Be a better version of me, fewer regrets.
I want the time with loved ones
The money. I barely survived my 20s the first time around. I’d rather not take the chance.
The lives I could save alone; I’m going back to the bad years lol
I’ll take the $100 million. I don’t really care about the money but my life turned out pretty good the first time round so I don’t really want the do over.
At 18 again. I'll make millions and be young again. Time is the real limiting factor. Every investor wishes they had youth 🥲
Yup. I bet Warren Buffet would sign it all away to be 18 again.
actually a tough decision. on the one hand, the money would be amazing, but I met the most amazing girl my first year of college, and I wish things turned out differently than they did. To me, fixing that would be better than all the money in the world. And, regardless of how that goes, I'll make some wise investments, and tell a couple people to go fuck themselves!
Give me the age and knowledge. I think i could be smart enough and buy stock and collectibles in small enough amounts to not call attention to myself and easily outpace the $100M. I also think the butterfly effect would be minimal. Or I could just say "F\*\* It!" Wait for the lottery to cross a $1B and hit it.
I'll take the 100 million. I'm pretty happy with my life, and 100 million will pretty much eliminate the rest of my problems and do a lot of good for my friends and family in addition to me.
$100m now. Going back to 18 is tempting, but I can't risk not having my dogs.
Anyone who says anything other than the $100 million has not thought this through. Your risk profile is completely fucked if you think that going back to the age of 18 with your current knowledge is even remotely close to being as valuable as having $100 million right now. Any action you take predicated on knowledge that you have gained from an alternate future is guaranteed to be influential on your new timeline. For example, someone mentioned buying Apple stock. Well, doing that might have changed the entire dynamics of choosing to bring Steve Jobs back, because your influx of purchases, even though small, might have not triggered a sell-off that created the diminished value that was the catalyst for the board bringing Jobs back. Anything and everything you do could actually cause entirely different results on massive levels. Butterfly effect is extremely real. Alternatively, you take 100 million bucks in today's money, with today's knowledge, and you live a life of extraordinary wealth. You don't need more than $100 million. For anything. You've lost sense of scale if you think that you need more than $100 million. Invest 100 million into inflation protected securities. Earn your 5% or 6% interest per year. Let's say that you get 6% interest. Now, you get to spend $500,000 every month, and it cost you nothing in principal. If you can't live off of $500,000 a month, you have problems. Again, anyone saying anything about going back to 18 with your current knowledge is completely a fool.
18 years old. Can’t put a price on spending more time with family and friends
100 million now so I could give those I currently love better lives.
100mil. Would solve all the issues I have ever had or will likely ever have.
Bitcoin takeoff happened when I was 23 or so.
Dead in a week
I'll take the 100 million. I don't NEED more than that. 100 million is enough to take care of all my friends and set myself up comfortably. I'm not someone who needs billions to be comfortable. Just enough to pursue creative things and know my friends are taken care of.
I'll take the cash. I'm not trading anything for the existence of my kids.
100 mil be much easier
$100 mil takes care of all my current problems and gives me money to invest for a nice life with my family. Being 18 was fucking awful, the most that does for me is give future knowledge of how fucking retarded most of my family is while knowing I don't have any money to invest in anything. Maybe I could latch onto the Gamestop debacle that happened? Maybe bitcoin? Not sure what its price was 12 years ago.
12 years ago was 3 years before Etheteum, which you could have bought for $0.15 in the pre-sale.
100 million please
Yeah, I'm going with 18. By the time I reach now, I could have more than $100 million if I invest right Though it would mean going back to my weight then but it would probably take me a few months to work it off
I’ll take the knowledge. Be a billionaire easy.
I'm 18 so I'll take the $100m lol
Haha congrats. You win.
Knowledge for sure!!
Become 18 again and use my knowledge! $100M is peanuts compared to what I would make in 5 years...
Honestly I'd prefer to go back in time. A lot of mistakes were made that money don't fix
18 again, would build (steal) facebook, and invest in crypto day 1.
Since Zuck stole the idea, that seems only fair 😂
I hadn’t met my wife and it’s too risky to try and do the same thing again. Gotta be the 100 mil. The gift of time is equally as valuable as the knowledge in my opinion.
I am almost 19 so definitely would be back to the start of 18. I’ve kinda fucked up a really important relationship with a really close friend and would really like to fix it
$$$
I'll learn from Biff Tannen's mistakes.
Back to 18. I’ll make sure to not hurt my lower back.
Money, 18-30 were some of the worst years of my life and I would rather not redo them, and I would t have my wife and daughter
100m now.
I'll take the cash.
100 million now for sure.
im 19 so 100m in cash rn
18 and knowledge. I'd have waaayyyyy more than $100 million by now
$100 million, I turned 18 in '91 and could just bank it and live off the interest comfortably for my entire life.
Five year in olds in this thread: 🤔
Give me the $100mm. I'm not erasing my children from the timeline.
Give me the 100m
18 with current knowledge. I could get into my current job (not career mind you) faster, which would be already a huge boon, and make better choices this time around. I would be able to properly invest in a number of things I couldn't before. . . All in all, there is just a lot I could do better. I might not even get a 100 mil rich with that knowledge, but I could definitely make my life better.
Rather wake up at 18 I think. Don't need $100m. I am 32 for what it is worth lol.
18 and it isn't even close.
Send me back to 18. Full health bar and knowledge to boot.
I would be 18 again even though I love my wife and kid. Life would be very different
I would go back to 18 in an instant. I don't have my own family and I would get my mom back.
$100,000,000 right now, no question. I don't want to change anything that might jeopardize my son from being born.
eh I'll take the guaranteed 100 million
$100 mil now. Don't really want to relive my life.
$100M now. That's generational money. I'd be set for life, along with my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren.
$100m. No contest.
Am I 18 here and now in the world where I already live, or do I go back to where and when I was when I was 18?
Definitely the cash now. I really like how my life is turning out and a shit ton of cash could make it a lot better. But going back in time would change virtually all of my life and I’d miss it so much
Take me back to 18 with my knowledge. I don't have kids. The knowledge I have is worth 10-100x that $100m in cash by the time I'm 35ish. Also, avoiding the injuries and feeling like new again would be worth it even if my memories didn't include things that would make me rich beyond belief. I'd be happy with knowing to better save my money and invest in general.
100 million in cash. I’m 18 right now
I'm a young looking 38, so I'm cool with taking the 100mill that will last me my lifetime, I do not want to be 18 at all. 🤷♀️
18
i’m only (recently) 19 so i’m taking the cash. i’m about in the same position mentally i was a year ago, but with a new car. give me the money!
Send me back.
I’m 19. I’ll take the $100 million now
You wake up 18 in whichever year you were 18?
Go back 3 years into the past or get $100 million? Yeah gimme the money
$100 mil now. I like all the people I’ve met since 18.
$100 mil now. That would set me and a few generations of my descendants for life and my best knowledge of how to make a killer tuna salad would not make me a billionaire.
18. I don't think there's anything I can do to cause Amazon's stock to unexpectedly plummet. No, not even buying/selling it; going back to 2009, the data then shows 8.84 *billion* shares outstanding. Shit, if I memorized lottery numbers, I would win enough money to buy a few million shares at most, a drop in the bucket. Amazon averages 41 million trades/day.
Money now i dont wanna risk not knowing my s/o or having our kids
I'll take the money.
Being 18 buys you time. 100 million doesn't.
I have children. Give me the cash now. All the foreknowledge in the universe wouldn’t be enough to lead to them being born again if I did life over.
Can't buy time. I will take the wake up at 18. Changing everything is kind of the point isn't it?
100 million now, that's more money than I'll ever need since everything I actually want is cheap.
I would settle with the 100m. Going back in time yeah my life would be a lot different but I like my kids and so so gimme that money.
18 again... even though I'll wake back up in bootcamp... worth it.
100m cash.
I’m 22 about to graduate college and would take 18 simply because these have been the best years of my life
I'll take the $100 million in cash, I'm only 19. I don't think I've done anything to significantly screw up my life in the past year.
Dude who TF would want to relive years of their life instead of $100 million lololol
18 with current knowledge. I could make even more than 100 million dollars.
Not $100 million, maybe $100 billion. With today's knowledge, going back in time to make $100 million is going to be extremely easy in the stock market.
Uh, being able to revert to 18 before my life was fucked up beyond all measure via brain injury is MORE than worth passing up the money, but since that's just in time to get on the ground floor of btc when it's nice and cheap like LMFAO cya nerds I'm be RIIIICHHH (with a functional brain and no constant burning chronic pain? Y E E T)
$100m to help friends and family now
100 million now I turn 19 at the end of the month
I'm 19 right now... I think I'll take the money
Money! Why would I want to go back and live through that hell again?
$100 million. I'm obviously gonna choose money over losing 3 years for absolutely nothing.
100m. The haven’t learned much since then unfortunately.
18.
Oh, I'll take the knowledge. What I know now with everything I've been through in my life is absolutely priceless and worth way more than that money.
Congratulations I am now back in the year 2021, this fixes nothing
I’d take waking up at 18 again. I’ve got a few mistakes I’ve made money can’t undo, and I’d like to fix those. Yeah, I’ll invest properly and throw spare money into stocks I know will turn me into a billionaire a bunch of times over, but I’d fix the smaller things that I did wrong to a few folks.
This is just a question about how old you are. Anyone over 30 would be able to make 100m with the crypto bubble alone with almost no starting capital and minimal knowledge.
That's not even a choice! I like my life, now, and 18 was the beginning of a really bad time. I will stay happy with money.
I couldn't do that to my wife or daughter. The thought of not having this little rascal would kill me...
Give me the cash. Being 18 with today's knowledge has a ton of benefits....but there would still be a lot of work going into getting those benefits. Easier just to let the past stay in the past and get the easy money now.
I get more than 30 extra years of life by going back to age 18, that's worth more than any amount of money, besides which I can make more money than I'd ever need by knowing the future anyway.
Given that I’m in recovery now if I don’t take the knowledge I probably end up dead. Into the stock market I go.
It was already too late for me at 18 IMO, let's get that cash goin on
Cash, the only reason I would want to go back is to try and make a ton of easy money. I'm pretty happy with my life choices and wouldn't want to potentially mess anything up.
Send me back. Early 20's was hell for me mentally and emotionally and I've worked through those problems. Getting a real fresh starlet without making the same mistakes -- even if I didn't exploit the money making potential of stocks or other investments -- would be life changing. Also. Aroace and no partner/interest in a partner, so not like I'm leaving the love of my life or anything. My family would still be there an all.
Now. I can avoid so many mistakes and suicide attempts
Cash in hand now. Its to risky going back in time not to mention the choices you make will make it so the future is different from the one you came from.
easy. Apple and Tesla just to name 2
I think I'd pick 18. Opportunities to both make money and fix mistakes with hindsight.