re: $5k in a Fidelity fund in ‘95 is now worth ...

I have a "kids are stupid" story about myself. Back in the day (1986 - 1987), I worked at Wal-Mart. They had an employee stock purchase plan. I'm 99% sure they matched, dollar-for-dollar up to a certain amount.

Call it 18 months working there, and it was between 2 2:1 splits, average price of somewhere in the mid-$40s - had I merely purchased 1 share of stock per month (not paycheck), that would have been less than $900 and with the company match I would have had 36 shares of stock when I left.

Those 36 shares of stock (split to 576) would be worth over $67k today, assuming I just took and spent all the dividends since then. With dividends reinvested, easily over $100k - from a $900 (subsidized) investment 34 years ago.