What if you had skipped one fried chicken a week and bought NVIDIA for 2 years?
We assumed buying $20 of NVIDIA, one fried chicken's worth, at every Friday close from August 23, 2024 to August 21, 2026, 105 purchases in all. The $2,100 invested was worth $2,887 (+37.5%) at the valuation date. In chicken terms, 105 birds forgone became 144. As a rate of return it worked; as an absolute reward for two years of weekly restraint, $787 is ambiguous. What the experiment does deliver is why the return trails the stock's own +66% over the window, and why the real variable of this habit is duration, not amount.
Hypothesis
“Pocket change like chicken money never amounts to anything, no matter how faithfully you invest it.”
Experiment setup
Buy $20 of NVIDIA at each Friday close (next trading day if closed), 105 times. One chicken is set at $20 to keep the math simple. Dividends, fees and taxes excluded; fractional shares assumed.
- First purchase
- 2024-08-23
- Valuation date
- 2026-08-21
- Total invested
- $2,100
- Stocks
- NVIDIA
Result
Final value
$2,887+37.5%
Trend chart
Unit: USDMonth-end closes. Whenever the solid line sits below the dotted line, the account was worth less than the chicken money put in.
Verdict
Half right105 chickens' worth of money, $2,100, became $2,887. A +37.5% return is excellent; $787 in absolute terms is awkward. The hypothesis was half right.
Why this experiment
Advice to skip the coffee and invest the difference is everywhere; someone actually running the numbers to the end is rare. So we picked the combination most likely to produce a dramatic answer: the stock people talked about most over the past two years, and the small indulgence easiest to skip once a week.
The four months the account was worth less than the chicken
About half a year in, from January through April 2025, the account's value sat below the chicken money already sacrificed. At the worst point, at the end of March, $640 invested was worth $536 (-16%). Skipping chicken every week while the account weighs less than the chicken: that is the actual difficulty of this habit.
The stock rose 66%, so why is my return 37.5%?
The share price rose 66%, from $129.37 at the first purchase to $214.72 at valuation. But an installment plan's return is measured against its average cost ($156.20), not the full-window move. Since the price kept climbing while the weekly buying went on, the later purchases had less upside left. The return looking smaller than the chart's rise is not an error; it is how installment math works.
The real variable of pocket change is duration
$787 does not change a life; on that point the hypothesis held. But a habit that adds 37.5% to its principal in two years is hard to dismiss as pocket change; on that point it failed. That is as far as this experiment can testify. Keep the same habit for ten years and the principal alone passes $10,000; what it will be worth then, only the prices of that day know.
Key numbers
- Purchases
- 105
- Average cost
- $156.20
- Shares accumulated
- 13.44
- First purchase close
- $129.37 (2024-08-23)
- Valuation close
- $214.72 (2026-08-21)
- In chickens
- 105 → 144
FAQ
- Can you even buy a stock with $20?
- Many US brokers support fractional-share purchases. This calculation assumes every purchase filled in fractional units.
- Would starting today produce a similar result?
- Unknowable. These figures belong to the actual prices from August 2024 to August 2026, and the next two years are a different question. This report says nothing about the future.
- Why chicken, specifically?
- It repeats weekly, costs about the same each time, and is skippable, which makes it a clean unit for an installment experiment. Swap in coffee five times a week and the amounts grow but the structure is identical.
How this was calculated
Daily closing prices for NVIDIA (NVDA) from Yahoo Finance. Purchases use each Friday's close, or the next trading day when closed. Dividends, fees and taxes excluded; fractional shares assumed. The $20 chicken is a simplifying assumption; actual prices vary by shop.
Data sources
- [1] NVIDIA (NVDA) daily prices · Yahoo Finance · 2026-08-21
Stocks in this report
These are hypothetical results computed from past prices. A real trade would differ with fees, taxes, lot sizes and execution timing, and past returns say nothing about future returns. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The money flow and stock signals this service shows are estimated, for-reference information based on price and volume. It is not a solicitation to buy or sell any security, nor investment advice. It is a prior-close daily batch, not real-time quotes, and all investment decisions and responsibility are your own. The Trade button is a convenience link to your chosen brokerage's app/website; orders are placed directly at the brokerage and InverseOne is not involved in any order.