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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

The wisdom of Warren Buffett reflects a value-based philosophy about investing that says investors are buying shares in a business, and encourages strategic thinking about investment time horizon. Before placing a buy order for a stock, a great question we can ask is whether we would still be comfortable making the investment if we couldn’t sell it for many years?

A “buy-and-hold” approach may call for a time horizon that spans a long period of time — maybe even lasting for a ten year holding period. Suppose such a “buy-and-hold” investor had looked into buying shares of WellCare Health Plans Inc (NYSE: WCG) back in 2009. Let’s take a look at how such an investment would have worked out for that buy-and-hold investor:

Start date: 09/08/2009
$10,000

09/08/2009
$111,685

09/05/2019
End date: 09/05/2019
Start price/share: $24.21
End price/share: $270.35
Starting shares: 413.05
Ending shares: 413.05
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 1,016.69%
Average annual return: 27.30%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $111,685.51

The above analysis shows the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 27.30%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $111,685.51 today (as of 09/05/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,016.69% (something to think about: how might WCG 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:
“Smart investing doesn’t consist of buying good assets but of buying assets well. This is a very, very important distinction that very, very few people understand.” — Howard Marks