“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”
— Warren Buffett
This inspiring quote from Warren Buffett teaches us the importance of considering our investment time horizon when approaching any given investment: Could we envision ourselves holding the stock we are considering for many years? Even a five year holding period potentially?
For “buy-and-hold” investors taking a long-term view, what’s important isn’t the short-term stock market fluctuations that will inevitably occur, but what happens over the long haul. Looking back 5 years to 2019, investors considering an investment into shares of Tesla Inc (NASD: TSLA) may have been pondering this very question and thinking about their potential investment result over a full five year time horizon. Here’s how that would have worked out.
Start date: | 09/16/2019 |
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End date: | 09/13/2024 | ||||
Start price/share: | $16.19 | ||||
End price/share: | $230.29 | ||||
Starting shares: | 617.67 | ||||
Ending shares: | 617.67 | ||||
Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
Total return: | 1,322.42% | ||||
Average annual return: | 70.11% | ||||
Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
Ending investment: | $142,238.47 |
As shown above, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 70.11%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $142,238.47 today (as of 09/13/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,322.42% (something to think about: how might TSLA shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” — Warren Buffett