“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 2014: 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: | 01/27/2014 |
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| End date: | 01/24/2024 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $53.55 | ||||
| End price/share: | $390.70 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 186.74 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 186.74 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 629.60% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 21.99% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $72,946.73 | ||||
The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 21.99%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $72,946.73 today (as of 01/24/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 629.60% (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:
“The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator. This means that he should be able to justify every purchase he makes and each price he pays by impersonal, objective reasoning that satisfies him that he is getting more than his money’s worth for his purchase.” — Benjamin Graham
