“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— Warren Buffett
Investors can learn a lot from Warren Buffett, whose above quote teaches the importance of thinking about investment time horizon, and asking ourselves before buying any given stock: can we envision holding onto it for years — even a ten year holding period possibly?
Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASD: UAL) back in 2009: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full ten year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.
| Start date: | 12/10/2009 |
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| End date: | 12/09/2019 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $10.17 | ||||
| End price/share: | $87.61 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 983.28 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 983.28 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 761.46% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 24.02% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $86,133.76 | ||||
As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 24.02%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $86,133.76 today (as of 12/09/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 761.46% (something to think about: how might UAL 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 can’t be a good value investor without being an independent thinker; you’re seeing valuations that the market is not appreciating. But it’s critical that you understand why the market isn’t seeing the value you do.” — Joel Greenblatt
