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“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five 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 five year holding period possibly?

Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) back in 2017: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full five year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 5 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.

Start date: 11/10/2017
$10,000

11/10/2017
  $17,110

11/09/2022
End date: 11/09/2022
Start price/share: $170.67
End price/share: $292.02
Starting shares: 58.59
Ending shares: 58.59
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 71.10%
Average annual return: 11.34%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $17,110.24

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 11.34%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $17,110.24 today (as of 11/09/2022). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 71.10% (something to think about: how might TYL shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“All you need for a lifetime of successful investing is a few big winners, and the pluses from those will overwhelm the minuses from the stocks that don’t work out.” — Peter Lynch