Time to debunk yet another facebook viral staus that I have been seeing lately….
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today! If you purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG, you would have $33.00. If you purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers, you would have $0.00 today. But, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer, drank all the beer, turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have $214.00. Therefore the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg Plan!
Assuming there were no broker’s fees or taxes, it’s easy to show that this is very false, expect for Lehman Brothers, that’s true.
Aug 10, 2010 shares of Delta were 11.80 a share, so that would be 84.7458 shares. Aug 10, 2011 1:40, the going price is 6.84, therefore that would be $579.661. (google finance)
Aug 10, 2010 shares of AIG were 40.19 a share, so that would be 24.8818 shares. Aug 10, 2011 1:40, the going price is 23.39, therefore that would be $580.99. (google finance)
Assuming you bought a 30 pack of the cheapest beer (best value for best case scenario) for $10 a case, you could get 100 cases (before taxes). That would be 3000 cans of beer. There are about 30 cans per pound of aluminum (wikipedia), and the going rate of aluminum is currently $1.08 per pound (metalprices.com). So you would then have $108.
The calculations are good as of writing this article, and will change constantly with the markets.