“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
— 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 twenty year holding period possibly?
Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASD: AMD) back in 2002: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full twenty year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 20 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.
| Start date: | 07/01/2002 |
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| End date: | 06/29/2022 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $9.14 | ||||
| End price/share: | $77.99 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 1,094.09 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 1,094.09 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 753.28% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 11.31% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $85,323.00 | ||||
The above analysis shows the twenty year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 11.31%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $85,323.00 today (as of 06/29/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 753.28% (something to think about: how might AMD shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“Ensure management’s interests are aligned with shareholders.” — Sam Zell
