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 decade-long holding period for an investor who was considering Carmax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) back in 2010, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 01/19/2010
$10,000

01/19/2010
$41,435

01/16/2020
End date: 01/16/2020
Start price/share: $22.85
End price/share: $94.70
Starting shares: 437.64
Ending shares: 437.64
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 314.44%
Average annual return: 15.28%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $41,435.30

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 15.28%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $41,435.30 today (as of 01/16/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 314.44% (something to think about: how might KMX shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” — George Soros