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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

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 decade-long holding period possibly?

Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Meta Platforms Inc (NASD: META) back in 2012: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full decade-long investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.

Start date: 07/25/2012
$10,000

07/25/2012
$57,689

07/22/2022
End date: 07/22/2022
Start price/share: $29.34
End price/share: $169.27
Starting shares: 340.83
Ending shares: 340.83
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 476.93%
Average annual return: 19.16%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $57,689.45

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 19.16%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $57,689.45 today (as of 07/22/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 476.93% (something to think about: how might META shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Another great investment quote to think about:
“Be fearful when others are greedy; be greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett