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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 Verisign Inc (NASD: VRSN) back in 2012, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 08/30/2012
$10,000

08/30/2012
  $39,016

08/29/2022
End date: 08/29/2022
Start price/share: $47.20
End price/share: $184.08
Starting shares: 211.86
Ending shares: 211.86
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 290.00%
Average annual return: 14.58%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $39,016.66

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 14.58%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $39,016.66 today (as of 08/29/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 290.00% (something to think about: how might VRSN shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“Every day that you’re not selling an asset in your portfolio, you’re choosing to buy it.” — Sam Zell