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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 First Solar Inc (NASD: FSLR) back in 2013: 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: 04/29/2013
$10,000

04/29/2013
  $44,076

04/27/2023
End date: 04/27/2023
Start price/share: $45.57
End price/share: $200.83
Starting shares: 219.44
Ending shares: 219.44
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 340.71%
Average annual return: 15.99%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $44,076.34

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 15.99%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $44,076.34 today (as of 04/27/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 340.71% (something to think about: how might FSLR shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“Nearly every time I strayed from the herd, I’ve made a lot of money. Wandering away from the action is the way to find the new action.” — Jim Rogers