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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 Molina Healthcare Inc (NYSE: MOH) 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: 10/07/2013
$10,000

10/07/2013
  $92,038

10/04/2023
End date: 10/04/2023
Start price/share: $35.63
End price/share: $328.00
Starting shares: 280.66
Ending shares: 280.66
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 820.57%
Average annual return: 24.86%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $92,038.42

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 24.86%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $92,038.42 today (as of 10/04/2023). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 820.57% (something to think about: how might MOH shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Our job is to find a few intelligent things to do, not to keep up with every damn thing in the world.” — Charlie Munger