what is an example of opportunity cost in investing 
consider a young investor who decides to put 5 000 into bonds each year and dutifully does so for 50 years assuming an average annual return of 2 5 their portfolio at the end of that time would be worth nearly 500 000 although this result might seem impressive it is less so when you consider the investor s opportunity cost if for example they had instead invested half of their money in the stock market and received an average blended return of 5 a year their portfolio would have been worth more than 1 million their opportunity cost in this case would be over 500 000 