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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 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: 12/16/2009
$10,000

12/16/2009
$98,341

12/13/2019
End date: 12/13/2019
Start price/share: $11.87
End price/share: $116.75
Starting shares: 842.46
Ending shares: 842.46
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 883.57%
Average annual return: 25.69%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $98,341.13

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 25.69%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $98,341.13 today (as of 12/13/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 883.57% (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.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t realize it at the time.” — Shelby Davis