Could You Retire Today if You Had Bought Microsoft Stock 10 Years Ago?
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Brendan McGinley
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Microsoft shareholders have enjoyed a terrific run over the past decade, with the software company’s stock price rising more than 1,000% during that time frame. A $1,000 investment 10 years ago would be worth about $11,450 today. That’s an excellent return on your money, but it’s not enough to retire on — or even close to it.
So could you retire today if you had bought in 10 years ago? The answer is yes, depending on how much Microsoft stock you’d bought. While that’s true of many stocks, it’s a lot more realistic with Microsoft than most. Let’s break down the numbers.
Could You Retire Off Your Microsoft Stock Investment?
Ideally you’ll have saved about nine times your salary by age 65. The average American full-time worker earns $62,192 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, so a typical American should have roughly $560,000 saved for retirement. However, Federal Reserve research found that the average retirement savings for Americans ages 65-74 was $200,000 as of 2022, so the midpoint between reality and objective would be $380,000.
Could a regular person have bought enough Microsoft stock in 2015 to get there? Here’s how the tech company’s price has grown over the past 10 years, according to its Yahoo Finance stock chart:
- September 2015 closing price: $44.26 per share
- September 25, 2025 closing price: $507.03
Microsoft has not had any stock splits over the past decade, so those prices reflect the true value of its stock.
If you aimed to earn enough money from your Microsoft investment 10 years ago to retire today, you would have needed to invest about $33,000. That’s a lot of money, but still a realistic number. Here’s a breakdown:
- September 2015 closing price: $44.26 per share
- Number of shares with $33,000 investment: 746
- September 25, 2025 closing price: $507.03
- Current value: $378,244
You’d have close to the $380,000 retirement benchmark from the return alone. But the good news is your actual value would be even more than that because of dividends paid to Microsoft shareholders. From the summer of 2015 to August 2025, Microsoft‘s dividend yield rose from $0.36 to $0.83. With $33,000, your $18,619.28 in dividends would purchase just under $60,000 in additional shares, according to Stoculator.
As for the original example, your initial $1,000 investment would have yielded you an additional $1,802.87 from reinvesting $564.22: nothing to retire on, but at least it will buy you a decent computer.
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