Two years ago, I gave my readers a challenge: To pick a stock that they’d hold for the next 80 years.

This is how I presented it:

Your workplace is stormed by well-dressed officials who grab you, throw you into a car, and take you to an interrogation centre.

You’re part of a deeply rooted narcotics organization, they tell you—conducting its wholesale transactions in the bowels of Mexico’s Copper Canyon.

Despite being innocent, you know that somehow you’re doomed, because that slick, cool little red headed guy with the shades from CSI Miami is convinced you’re the one they’re looking for… and that you’ve killed a couple of his agents… and that you’ve slept with his girlfriend… so you’re screwed no matter what.

But one of the good-looking, 20 year old genius CSI dudes has built a cryogenic chamber set to freeze someone and automatically revive them 80 years into the future. And he wants to test it. Horatio (the red-headed guy) thinks this sounds like a good idea—because he figures that your chances of revival will be about as good as Walt Disney’s, and nobody really expects Walt to walk again.

“Hey!” you protest, “Even if this works, my family will be gone, my professional skills will be redundant in 2090, and I’ll have no way of making a living.”

Horatio leans forward. Slowly taking off his shades he says, “One stock. We’ll liquidate your bank accounts,” he smirks, “and put your money into one stock. If it goes bankrupt in the next 80 years, too bad. But if it makes even 8% a year for the next 80 years you’ll be rich if you survive. So what’s it going to be?”

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It was one of my most popular posts, and it was great to see so many people pick up the gauntlet and debate the issue.

More recently, John Heinzl, of the Globe and Mail, sent out a similar challenge. I was one of the “experts” he questioned, when recommending a single dividend paying stock for the next 100 years.

What kind of chump would I be, if I chose a different stock this year, to what I chose two years ago? Coca Cola was my pick then, and I’m sticking to it.

You can see John’s article here, published in the Globe and Mail, earlier this week: … read the article

But what about you?

What stock would you pick?