Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

— 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 two-decade holding period for an investor who was considering Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) back in 2002, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 02/11/2002
$10,000

02/11/2002
$1,194,888

02/08/2022
End date: 02/08/2022
Start price/share: $3.95
End price/share: $472.04
Starting shares: 2,531.65
Ending shares: 2,531.65
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 11,850.38%
Average annual return: 27.01%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $1,194,888.26

As shown above, the two-decade investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 27.01%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $1,194,888.26 today (as of 02/08/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 11,850.38% (something to think about: how might TYL shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” — Mark Twain