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 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: 10/02/2009
$10,000

10/02/2009
$88,098

10/01/2019
End date: 10/01/2019
Start price/share: $11.71
End price/share: $103.15
Starting shares: 853.97
Ending shares: 853.97
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 780.87%
Average annual return: 24.30%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $88,098.82

As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 24.30%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $88,098.82 today (as of 10/01/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 780.87% (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.]

Another great investment quote to think about:
“To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.” — Benjamin Graham