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

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 O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. (NASD: ORLY) back in 2011: 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: 04/21/2011
$10,000

04/21/2011
$92,428

04/20/2021
End date: 04/20/2021
Start price/share: $58.03
End price/share: $536.27
Starting shares: 172.32
Ending shares: 172.32
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 824.13%
Average annual return: 24.89%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $92,428.43

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 24.89%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $92,428.43 today (as of 04/20/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 824.13% (something to think about: how might ORLY 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:
“In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” — Benjamin Graham