NFL icon Rob Gronkowski managed to make oodles of cash after forgetting about the $69,000 he'd invested in Apple stocks.
While most of us would dream of even having $69,000 in our own bank accounts, let alone in stocks, Gronkowski certainly earned his fortunes during his footballing career.
The 36-year-old is regarded as one of the greatest tight ends of all time and has four Super Bowl titles to his name during his time with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While living in New England in 2014, the athlete was in the process of building his house and received some advice from a contractor which helped to change his life for the better.
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Although the NFL legend was probably already worth millions, it didn't stop the contractor telling him to invest in Apple stocks, which is sensible given how big the tech company already was at this point.
Speaking to Fortune, Gronkowski said: “Every time I saw him, when we were building the house, he kept saying, ‘Get Apple. Get Apple'. So after the 50th time, I got it. And let me tell you, it’s the best investment I’ve ever had in my life.
“I [had] never been involved in stocks. I really didn’t know how stocks work. So I was like, ‘All right, let me do this, man.’
“Obviously this just fits along the lines of just me being myself; I’m going to put $69,000 into Apple stock. So I call up my financial advisor. I’m like, ‘Put $69,000 in Apple.’ My own money, with no advice like this, is just from the guy who built my house here in the New England area.”
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Naturally, investing such a big amount is a huge risk, even with the millions Gronkowski was probably earning and certainly set to earn in the rest of his career, so he clearly had a lot of faith in the random contractor, and that faith certainly paid off.
Despite the hefty investment, Gronkowski - who is now reportedly worth $45 million - said he promptly forgot about it for two and half years, before being pleasantly surprised to see the value of the stocks had risen to $250k. He sold some of them, but kept the rest.
He revealed: “Now to this day, I have over $600,000 in Apple stock, all because of the investment I made in 2014 having no idea what I was doing, but just listening to the guy that built my house here in New England.
“Let me tell you, he built my house, and he gave all the money back to me by telling me to invest in Apple."
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If Gronkowski had kept all of his Apple stock, he would now have an even larger pot of money, roughly around $700k-$750k, a whopping 950 percent return on his investment.
Things certainly worked out better for Gronkowski than it did for Ronald Wayne, the man who sold his 10 per cent stake in the company for just $800, with that same stake said to be worth around $300 billion in today's money.
James Moorhouse