“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
— Warren Buffett
One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a ten year holding period for an investor who was considering Tesla Inc (NASD: TSLA) back in 2015, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
| Start date: | 05/04/2015 |
|
|||
| End date: | 05/01/2025 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $15.37 | ||||
| End price/share: | $280.52 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 650.62 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 650.62 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 1,725.11% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 33.70% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $182,521.52 | ||||
As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 33.70%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $182,521.52 today (as of 05/01/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,725.11% (something to think about: how might TSLA shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more investment quote to leave you with:
“We don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.” — Warren Buffett
