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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 decade-long holding period for an investor who was considering Carmax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) back in 2009, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 07/16/2009
$10,000

07/16/2009
$57,744

07/15/2019
End date: 07/15/2019
Start price/share: $15.37
End price/share: $88.79
Starting shares: 650.62
Ending shares: 650.62
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 477.68%
Average annual return: 19.16%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $57,744.89

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 19.16%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $57,744.89 today (as of 07/15/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 477.68% (something to think about: how might KMX shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don’t understand that’s going to happen, then you’re not ready, you won’t do well in the markets.” — Peter Lynch