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“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

— Warren Buffett

The wisdom of Warren Buffett reflects a value-based philosophy about investing that says investors are buying shares in a business, and encourages strategic thinking about investment time horizon. Before placing a buy order for a stock, a great question we can ask is whether we would still be comfortable making the investment if we couldn’t sell it for many years?

A “buy-and-hold” approach may call for a time horizon that spans a long period of time — maybe even lasting for a five year holding period. Suppose such a “buy-and-hold” investor had looked into buying shares of Netflix Inc (NASD: NFLX) back in 2016. Let’s take a look at how such an investment would have worked out for that buy-and-hold investor:

Start date: 05/18/2016
$10,000

05/18/2016
$54,032

05/17/2021
End date: 05/17/2021
Start price/share: $90.50
End price/share: $488.94
Starting shares: 110.50
Ending shares: 110.50
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 440.27%
Average annual return: 40.13%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $54,032.57

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 40.13%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $54,032.57 today (as of 05/17/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 440.27% (something to think about: how might NFLX shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.” — Benjamin Graham