Photo credit: commons.wikimedia.org

“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 Salesforce Inc (NYSE: CRM) 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: 06/21/2017
$10,000

06/21/2017
$18,642

06/17/2022
End date: 06/17/2022
Start price/share: $87.56
End price/share: $163.26
Starting shares: 114.21
Ending shares: 114.21
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 86.46%
Average annual return: 13.29%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $18,642.86

The above analysis shows the five year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 13.29%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $18,642.86 today (as of 06/17/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 86.46% (something to think about: how might CRM shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“If you have more than 120 or 130 I.Q. points, you can afford to give the rest away. You don’t need extraordinary intelligence to succeed as an investor.” — Warren Buffett