
“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 decade-long holding period possibly?
Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE: CMG) back in 2015: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full decade-long investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.
Start date: | 05/15/2015 |
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End date: | 05/14/2025 | ||||
Start price/share: | $12.65 | ||||
End price/share: | $52.24 | ||||
Starting shares: | 790.51 | ||||
Ending shares: | 790.51 | ||||
Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
Total return: | 312.96% | ||||
Average annual return: | 15.23% | ||||
Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
Ending investment: | $41,304.08 |
As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 15.23%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $41,304.08 today (as of 05/14/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 312.96% (something to think about: how might CMG shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don’t understand that’s going to happen, then you’re not ready, you won’t do well in the markets.” — Peter Lynch