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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

The Warren Buffett investment philosophy calls for a long-term investment horizon, where a decade-long holding period, or even longer, would fit right into the strategy. How would such a strategy have worked out for an investment into Dollar Tree Inc (NASD: DLTR)? Today, we examine the outcome of a decade-long investment into the stock back in 2015.

Start date: 05/21/2015
$10,000

05/21/2015
  $11,515

05/20/2025
End date: 05/20/2025
Start price/share: $78.68
End price/share: $90.62
Starting shares: 127.10
Ending shares: 127.10
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 15.18%
Average annual return: 1.42%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $11,515.15

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out as follows, with an annualized rate of return of 1.42%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $11,515.15 today (as of 05/20/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 15.18% (something to think about: how might DLTR shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Here’s one more great investment quote before you go:
“Waiting helps you as an investor and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait. If you didn’t get the deferred-gratification gene, you’ve got to work very hard to overcome that.” — Charlie Munger