“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 ten year holding period possibly?
Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Alphabet Inc (NASD: GOOGL) back in 2014: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full ten year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.
| Start date: | 05/07/2014 |
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| End date: | 05/06/2024 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $25.90 | ||||
| End price/share: | $168.10 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 386.10 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 386.10 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 549.03% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 20.55% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $64,880.90 | ||||
As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 20.55%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $64,880.90 today (as of 05/06/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 549.03% (something to think about: how might GOOGL shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“When the public is most frightened, only the strong are left, and that’s when the market is in the best possible hands.” — Victor Niederhoffer
