Millionaire-makers of the '90s

It's the dawn of a new decade.

Do you know where your millions are?

Some hopeful investors may use the white-hot '90s as a guide. Technology's big decade, it was a great time for turning a few thousand dollars worth of shares into multimillions.

Stock in Cisco Systems (the networking company that recently passed giant Microsoft in terms of value, and now trails only General Electric) saw a return of 124,825 percent over the decade.

And owing to a 91,863 percent increase, a $5,000 investment in 1989 in Dell, the personal computer maker, would have left you with more than $4.5 million today, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times, citing Atlanta-based Ned Davis Research.

These staggering changes in stock values were calculated by taking a company's stock price at the end of 1989, the price at the end of 1999, and then adjusting for the (sometimes numerous) stock splits along the way.

Some other notable millionaire-makers and their returns, according to investools.com, an online financial site:

America Online, 81,400 percent; EMC Corp. (which makes data-storage equipment), 68,314 percent; and CMGI (a developer of Internet companies), 57,191 percent.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society