According to the Barclays Capital Equity Gilt Study - which has looked at the returns on a number of investments including gilts, equities, cash and bonds since 1900 equities have returned an average of 7.1% a year since 1952. Gilts have returned 1.6% and cash 1.7%.

Very few unit trusts have been running that long but someone who put £100 (today's equivalent would be around £1,700) into its Blue Chip fund would now have more than £35,000. According to M&G's figures its Blue Chip Fund has returned 12.4% a year over the past 50 years while the FTSE All-share index returned 12.3%.

If you had put your cash on deposit you would have been worse off because it didn't even beat inflation - the return was 5.5% against 5.9% inflation. Interest rates started in 1952 at 4% and are now back to 4% but they have soared during the 70s when inflation was running at 25%. Base rates hit 13% in 1973 and 16% in 1980 with mortgage rates running at 12.5% in 1976 and hitting 17% in 1979. In 1992 Britain left the Exchange Rate Mechanism and by 1993 interest rates were at 5.5% As the advisers always say shares can go up and down in value - so let's look at how a few household names have fared over the last 50 years.