“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 decade-long holding period possibly?
Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into WellCare Health Plans Inc (NYSE: WCG) back in 2009: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full decade-long investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.
| Start date: | 12/11/2009 |
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| End date: | 12/10/2019 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $36.25 | ||||
| End price/share: | $319.57 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 275.86 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 275.86 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 781.57% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 24.31% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $88,169.75 | ||||
The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 24.31%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $88,169.75 today (as of 12/10/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 781.57% (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.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Although it’s easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket… it’s part-ownership of a business.” — Peter Lynch
