Last week, Phil Mickelson dominated the headlines after an excerpt from an upcoming book was released, revealing that he allegedly bet nearly $1 billion throughout the last three decades, losing about $100 million.

With the benefit of hindsight, let's examine what Mickelson's financial situation would be if he had chosen to invest in stocks rather than gambling.

For the purpose of this exercise, we will use the $100 million figure that Mickelson reportedly lost gambling. Starting in 1993, the S&P 500’s average annualized return is about 9.9%.