Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“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 Autodesk Inc (NASD: ADSK) back in 2009, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 08/12/2009
$10,000

08/12/2009
$61,219

08/09/2019
End date: 08/09/2019
Start price/share: $24.73
End price/share: $151.34
Starting shares: 404.37
Ending shares: 404.37
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 511.97%
Average annual return: 19.87%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $61,219.45

As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 19.87%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $61,219.45 today (as of 08/09/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 511.97% (something to think about: how might ADSK shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“Never test the depth of a river with both feet.” — Warren Buffett