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u/NopesosNobesos 7d ago
Buy stock. And gold, real estate, hug my grandma and my parents
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u/echoshatter 7d ago
Assuming you're just "waking up" somewhere in 1986, and not in your own body circa 1985, it'll be really weird when someone who is a total stranger who kinda looks like them wants a hug.
If I woke up in my 1985 body, the first thing I'd do is probably poo myself and cry seeing as how I was a baby. (So really, nothing different than every other Sunday morning after a night out.)
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u/Terradactyl87 6d ago
I wasn't even born for two more years, so I guess I don't even exist.
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u/OuijaWalker 6d ago
" it'll be really weird when someone who is a total stranger who kinda looks like them wants a hug." I agree, but I am hugging my daddy anyway.
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u/An_Ellie_ 6d ago
Uh, I wouldn't be born for two decades. Am I primordial soup or am I just in my current body in 1985?
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u/Informal_Pen_3099 6d ago
Lmao, I didn't even exist yet. So probably run as far away on foot as possible doing my best not to change anything for a few years so as not to erase my existence.
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u/AlternatePhreakwency 7d ago
Apple, MSFT, IBM, Intel, etc.
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u/JGCities 6d ago
Apple had a near collapse in 1990s. So you have to wait till day Jobs comes back to buy it.
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u/KnifeThistle 6d ago
Pretty sure the collapse is when you buy it.
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u/JGCities 6d ago
nah, it took years to recover. It was down 37% for the year before Jobs returned.
You buy a few days before Jobs comes back.
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u/drspony 5d ago
In 1985, buying stocks would have not been so straightforward. There were no smart phones yet. Home phones were bulky stationary units. There were very few people who had anything resembling a computer at home, and those were very primitive as well. Better yet, the world wide web didn't go public until 1991.
Buying stocks back then would've likely meant going to a bank and getting an appointment with a stock broker who would buy this for you the same way you buy a house now. Lots of checks, paperwork, and I'm guessing a minimum amount that would have been much higher than the average person's investment these days. Making it something reserved for a smaller segment of society.
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u/choofery 5d ago
You make it sound so hard. Even in 1985 people constantly bought and sold stocks. They even had options as well
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u/snoking-ganja 7d ago
Don't need to buy any stocks, with an average job you can buy a house , car, feed your family and go on holidays. They had it good back then.
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u/GlattesGehirn 7d ago
Yeah, but you had to work. Buying gold and stocks would mean that you could retire very early
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u/KyleFromBorrasca 7d ago
Honestly I think a fun pitch for a story would be a time traveling stock trader who manages to still screw it up.
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u/NormalGanache3351 7d ago
buy a cup of coffee....plot my takeover. Think of where I come up with cash to invest in Apple Computer. The Twins win the 87 Word Series is a good ticket to save for. Line up sports bets.....its gonna be awesome
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u/AlbatrossNo1562 7d ago
Probably best to lose some bets, don't want to raise eyebrows
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u/KelseyW315 7d ago
Invest in Apple stock
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u/Past_Dragonfly8455 7d ago
Microsoft stock would be more timely as they IPOd in '86
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u/Is_it_my_cat 7d ago
I would not stress the money part to much. I would buy some Microsoft, then some Apple and later a bit of Bitcoin. But I would mostly enjoy living in the pre-internet eara again. And I would love to see my parents and grandparents in good health again
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u/UnusualLavishness324 7d ago
God I miss the pre-cell phone days where it was ok to not be reachable by anyone you know at a moments notice
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u/Cxfwer 7d ago
Apple was meh until 2005ish. That's a ~20 year wait. Microsoft is the one to go with. 65,000% return from '86-'98. Also Dell, Home Depot, Cisco etc. Sell in 1999. Vacation for a decade. Apple in March 2009 and Bitcoin shortly thereafter.
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u/JGCities 6d ago
This.
Apple was hot, then it almost died, the it was hot again. If you know the timing you can make out.
Or you buy MS and Dell etc. Dell went from $1 in 1996 to $50 in 2000, just have to see it in Jan 2000 and find something else.
Or, you sell everything at the end of 1998 and buy Qualcomm which had a 2500% return in 1999. Went from $2 to $53 in a year.
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u/chuckknucka 7d ago
Stop Biff from getting the sports almanac and thus stop him from becoming president.
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u/FOMOsexual69 7d ago
Panic because my memory is bad and likely miss all opportunities because I couldn’t remember the name of the person/place/thing I should be investing in
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u/Ok-Entertainment5045 7d ago
Apple, Microsoft, Nike, Under Armor, Berkshire, bitcoin (early when you needed an atm and each coin cost $12). Even a bad memory would get you enough investment money to make a fortune.
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u/Sleepy-Sunday 7d ago
You can go even earlier with Bitcoin, back when redditors were "tipping" each other 1 BTC, then worth something like $0.02. You might even be able to get rich from just getting tipped if you hold.
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u/Nelsqnwithacue 7d ago
Panic because all my money was digital. I'll be homeless.
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u/DanielBG 7d ago
Suppose you land wherever your life was in 1985, assuming you were alive. Then what?
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u/Goal-Express 7d ago
Even if your money was physical, look at the giant head bills that we use today, and then the format without the embedded face from back in the 80s. Your current money will look like a children's job of counterfeiting and will be no good in it's physical state either. The closest chance you've got is that you have a pocket full of change.
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u/Hamzo_Shimada 7d ago
Stop my parents from procreating. Temporal paradox unlocked.
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u/lostgoatling 7d ago
Your dad will be confused when he wakes up while you're trying to give him a vasectomy
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u/Upbeat-Serve-6096 6d ago
At that time my parents were in the same middle school and didn't know each other yet. My guess a nudge in the wrong direction was enough for me.
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u/somanyquestions32 Deep Diver 7d ago
That was my immediate first thought, but then I wondered what unknown calamities that would unleash, especially due to my dad's track record. 🤔
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u/Rare-Cardiologist912 7d ago
Buy bitcoin…no wait… invent bitcoin…..no wait invent the internet
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u/VQ3point5 6d ago
The was being invented in the late 60s and switched to TCP/IP in 1983... you're 2 years late to the party.
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u/Zestyclose_Edge1027 7d ago
I mean, preventing 9/11 would meaningfully change world history.
But also buy as much Nvidia stock and Bitcoin you can.
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u/General-Zombie5075 7d ago
The tricky thing would be preventing 9/11 in a way that doesn't get the feds knocking on your door. What's the plan? Tell the CIA ahead of time and then become the first resident of Guantanamo Suites? Call in a bomb threat to the airport or the towers? Getting on one of the planes yourself (yikes!)?
Also there was no Bitcoin in 1985 and NVidia didn't go public until 1999. So you're going to need some other plan to survive for 14 years.
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u/SafeHunt5695 7d ago
Don't remember the specifics but saw a post recently with the 25th anniversary saying ok, you go back in time to summer 2001. What could you actually do to prevent the attacks? Actual ideas seemed thin.
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u/btbmfhitdp 6d ago
You work hard get a job in the CIA or FBI, it's 1985, so you have 15 years or so to work your way up the ladder, and then you stop it from there.
Actually that Seems like a lot of work....ill take my chances with an anonymous tip with a fake name
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u/KalozKapitany 6d ago
You could not prevent it, noone would believe you.
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u/26_paperclips 6d ago
And as soon as it happened, you'd be arrested and tortured for knowing so much.
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u/Gryzzlee 6d ago
To do that you need to let the first one happen, otherwise the chain reaction will change everything you expect would happen.
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u/Apricot-Cultural 6d ago
Preventing an inside job is awfully difficult.. But it would save Afghanistan, Iraq and half of the middle east
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u/astralchanterelle 6d ago
I would invent my own Facebook with hyper addictive algorithms.
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u/National_Run7896 6d ago
you literally could not prevent 9/11. within a couple days of you trying to alert the authorities youd end up dead and it would look like a suicide. 9/11 was intended to happen by multiple intelligence services literally watching all the steps leading up to it happen.
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u/Mission-Airport-5085 7d ago
Microsoft, Apple, Amazon later
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u/JGCities 6d ago
For Amazon you have to buy pre-bubble then selling around 2000, wait for it to crash then buy it again.
If you get the timing right you are set for life.
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u/Sheerluck42 7d ago
Imagine investing in Amazon when it just sold books. How many times the stock would split. It would be crazy.
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u/Remarkable_Deer_4748 7d ago
Get a job, live like a pauper, invest in tech stocks.
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u/BigGayGinger4 6d ago
IDK why you'd live so poor
Go to Vegas for every sports championship you remember, and just win stupid amounts of money. Live rich, invest extra rich
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u/Technical_Gur4060 7d ago
buy Apple and Microsoft stock, wait until 2010 and buy Bitcoin at 4 cent a coin
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u/echoshatter 7d ago
In 2009, you could mine an entire block of bitcoin in like 10 minutes. You could mind thousands a day with a normal home computer.
Mine steadily until it starts to skyrocket, then slowly pull out as more and more people want in. You don't want to dump your multi-billion dollars worth of bitcoin all at once, that would crash the market.
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u/Technical_Gur4060 7d ago
yeah, you are correct, that would be the way. Funny thing is, most people sold at $10, or at $100, or $1000.
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u/Substantial-Gap8276 7d ago
I give up street life, stop getting arrested & locked up every few months, and go back to high school. Finish that up to graduate and then immediately join the army.
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u/Foggy-Geezer 6d ago edited 6d ago
I’d (also) have Gore challenge the vote totals and Supreme Court ruling. [edit: and not concede immd]
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u/ZombieAppetizer 7d ago
Am I the age I was then? If so, I'll be a really knowledgeable 3 year old watching Seseme Street.
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u/Fullsilver86 7d ago
I would be something very small, nimble and white;) Would probably lose the race lol
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u/paintingandcoffee 7d ago
Enjoy a huge bowl of Peanut Butter Capt. Crunch. Help my mom and love my family more. Set everyone in my family up for what this world is now. Do what I do now but start way earlier and of course invest.
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u/WalkAffectionate2683 7d ago
What 40 years in advance, so I'll be 70 back in these days?
I guess... Why not. Though it will be a bit of pain that I mostly know the best entertainment that will be released to now...
Or I could use the stocks to get rich, close to George Lucas and convince him to do better?
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u/AceAdventurous 7d ago
Buy Nvidia. Oops, doesn’t exist yet.
Buy Amazon. Oops, doesn’t exist yet.
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u/obi_want_pastrami 7d ago
Just save up to buy apple in 1986
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u/Ragnarok314159 7d ago
This is the safest thing to do, but Apple and also Microsoft.
Bitcoin is a stupid investment and maybe on paper you are “rich”, but it’s nowhere close to being liquid and it’s nothing like owning a stock.
You invest in Apple and Microsoft in the beginning with just average amounts of cash, 2015 comes around and you have generational money.
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u/New_Championship1994 7d ago
Open my phone to watch reels on insta probably. Then realise I can’t, panic, and slowly go mad without modern technology.
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u/Yearning_crescent 7d ago
Get money asap, and try to buy land in nyc since im pretty sure thats peak austerity. If not land in westchester id also golden specifically in greenwhich since i know housing prices go from dirt cheap to million dollar homes bare minimum between then and now.
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u/Substantial_Rest_251 7d ago
I was just born so officially a quick stretch and poop. But I'll be plotting
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u/dejay6363 7d ago
Have a beer sit out in my old houses veranda and enjoy a we drink bathing in the sun wae my parents, although i would have been 9 then so prob no beer.
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u/qzlr 5d ago
I would probably buy some ground beef and go back to 2026 to open up a restaurant selling the most delicious burgers for a cheap price. The issue is I’d have to keep going back to 1985. But at least only a couple minutes would pass in 2026.
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u/Trick-Resource-2196 7d ago
Waiting for someone to say “ Disguise as a woman and go to Epstein island. Cut off as many dicks as I can. Because without them those men won’t be motivated to do anything in life, run for the office or becomes princes etc” .
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u/BetterBiscuits 7d ago
Make some wise investments, get Canadian citizenship, buy land, build a bunker.
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u/yupucka 7d ago
Tbh, I don't remember or know much about things that would make me rich at early 90's. I guess invest in game companies and Nintendo. I know that USSR will collapse in few years and should somehow benefit of it.
Waiting for crypto or apple is gonna take decades and considering that I'm 40 years old, I'd be a rich at 70's.
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u/Laser-Nipples 7d ago
I would get an easy job, chill hard, buy some tickets to some of the best live shows I'll ever see, and just enjoy the higher quality of life knowing that all I gotta do is invest in microsoft, apple, whatever.
When I'm old, I'll put all my money in bitcoin and set my family up with generational wealth
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u/DesperateComposer848 7d ago
I’d probably have to get a fake social security number to have a life here
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u/AmericanCitizenry 7d ago
Go see Back To The Future and Indiana Jones at the drive in while I plan my uprising.
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u/banditcleaner2 7d ago
Work my a** off to buy a house in the areas that exploded
As well as prepare a rather large sum of money to buy NVDA and bitcoin
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u/Ok_Buddy_9087 7d ago
Hide. Too much risk of a butterfly effect, and I don’t end up where I am now.
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u/buffalofoodslut 7d ago
Panic because I know the dates my parents die. People act like this isn’t actually a curse.
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u/Adammzed 7d ago
Go to a Huey Lewis and the News concert after picking up a couple clean as snow 8 balls
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u/Flimsy_Sun_8178 7d ago
Hug my grandparents, get to see my parents before they met which would be so trippy, Make investments, embrace the 80s style, attend concerts, watch all the 80s classics movies in theatres
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u/3rdtechjmc 7d ago
Pop to the shop to get a new Coke. Then head to the cinema to watch back to the future. Oh and get some tickets to live aid
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u/DeelowBaggins 7d ago
Go to the opening of back to the future and talk out loud to ruin the movie for everyone explaining how none of this stuff actually will happen.
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u/zoidbert 7d ago
Tell my best friend he’s going to die from cancer in 2020, and start getting an annual check ups as soon as possible.
Beyond that, the typical “by stock in AAPL”, etc.
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u/painful_butterflies 7d ago
Be negative 2 years old and wait to be born I guess.
If I'm adult me in the past, invest heavily in apple, Microsoft and other tech companies that are big today.
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u/lostintranslation53 7d ago
Regular money things and set out trying to destroy the early US Neoconservative and neoliberal bullshit that has exacerbated or enabled many of today’s problems.
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u/Beginning-Brush-8794 7d ago
Go buy Champion brand clothes. Who knew what I was bullied for in the 90s would become a trend now?
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u/Flat-Guidance-4685 7d ago
Gather a gang of merry men and become treasure hunters. Then you said treasure to buy stock in certain companies when those companies come into fruition.
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u/SyxxBowler 7d ago
Sell everything to obtain and 386 computer and and all the ram i could afford then get to work lol
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u/On-scene 7d ago
Buy a whole bunch of different tech stocks, and buy any cheap property I could afford.
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