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“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

— Warren Buffett

One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a ten year holding period for an investor who was considering Fiserv Inc (NASD: FISV) back in 2009, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 05/04/2009
$10,000

05/04/2009
$86,779

05/02/2019
End date: 05/02/2019
Start price/share: $9.85
End price/share: $85.46
Starting shares: 1,015.23
Ending shares: 1,015.23
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 767.61%
Average annual return: 24.12%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $86,779.61

The above analysis shows the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 24.12%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $86,779.61 today (as of 05/02/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 767.61% (something to think about: how might FISV shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” — Mark Twain