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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

This inspiring quote from Warren Buffett teaches us the importance of considering our investment time horizon when approaching any given investment: Could we envision ourselves holding the stock we are considering for many years? Even a five year holding period potentially?

For “buy-and-hold” investors taking a long-term view, what’s important isn’t the short-term stock market fluctuations that will inevitably occur, but what happens over the long haul. Looking back 5 years to 2017, investors considering an investment into shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE: CMG) may have been pondering this very question and thinking about their potential investment result over a full five year time horizon. Here’s how that would have worked out.

Start date: 03/08/2017
$10,000

03/08/2017
$32,572

03/07/2022
End date: 03/07/2022
Start price/share: $406.50
End price/share: $1,323.96
Starting shares: 24.60
Ending shares: 24.60
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 225.70%
Average annual return: 26.64%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $32,572.76

As we can see, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 26.64%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $32,572.76 today (as of 03/07/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 225.70% (something to think about: how might CMG shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Another great investment quote to think about:
“A risk-reward ratio is important, but so is an aggravation-satisfaction ratio.” — Muriel Siebert