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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 Fiserv Inc (NASD: FISV) 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: 10/13/2016
$10,000

10/13/2016
$20,913

10/12/2021
End date: 10/12/2021
Start price/share: $49.87
End price/share: $104.30
Starting shares: 200.52
Ending shares: 200.52
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 109.14%
Average annual return: 15.90%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $20,913.04

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 15.90%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $20,913.04 today (as of 10/12/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 109.14% (something to think about: how might FISV shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.” — Benjamin Graham