A penny saved or a penny invested?
Man saves pennies for 65 years
In 1994, a man from Ohio made headlines after depositing 8 million pennies he had been collecting
for 65 years. The collection of pennies — $80,000 worth — filled 40 trash cans.
What if he had invested them instead?
Although past performance is never a guarantee of future results, if the man had invested those
pennies in stocks, his savings could have grown to millions more.
The $7 million difference 12/31/51–12/31/16
$4,000,000
$2,000,000
Annualized total return performance as of 12/31/16
1 year
$8,000,000
$6,000,000
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Collecting
8 million pennies
$80,000
An investment
in stocks would
have grown to
$7,764,193
Investing $102/month
($79,662) in the
U.S. stock market
(Dow Jones
Industrial Average)
16.50%
3 years
8.71
5 years
12.92
10 years
7.52
65 years
10.69
Past performance is never a guarantee of future results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is an unmanaged
index composed of 30 blue-chip stocks, each with annual
sales exceeding $7 billion. The DJIA is price weighted,
reflects large-cap companies representative of U.S. industry,
and historically has moved in tandem with other major
market indexes. Data assumes reinvestment of dividends
and capital gains.
Putnam Retail Management
Putnam Investments | One Post Office Square | Boston, MA 02109 | putnam.com
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