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“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

— 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 decade-long holding period for an investor who was considering Adobe Inc (NASD: ADBE) back in 2012, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 07/13/2012
$10,000

07/13/2012
$122,550

07/12/2022
End date: 07/12/2022
Start price/share: $30.65
End price/share: $375.54
Starting shares: 326.26
Ending shares: 326.26
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 1,125.25%
Average annual return: 28.47%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $122,550.57

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 28.47%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $122,550.57 today (as of 07/12/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,125.25% (something to think about: how might ADBE shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Everyone has the brainpower to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach. If you are susceptible to selling everything in a panic, you ought to avoid stocks and mutual funds altogether.” — Peter Lynch