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“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

— 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 twenty year holding period possibly?

Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASD: AMD) back in 2005: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full twenty year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 20 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.

Start date: 01/24/2005
$10,000

01/24/2005
  $81,569

01/22/2025
End date: 01/22/2025
Start price/share: $15.16
End price/share: $123.75
Starting shares: 659.63
Ending shares: 659.63
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 716.29%
Average annual return: 11.06%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $81,569.51

As shown above, the twenty year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 11.06%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $81,569.51 today (as of 01/22/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 716.29% (something to think about: how might AMD shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” — Warren Buffett