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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 above quote from Warren Buffett is timeless, and brings into focus the choice about time horizon that any investor should think about before buying a stock they are considering. Behind every stock is an actual business; what will that business look like over a ten year period?

Today, let’s look backwards in time to 2015, and take a look at what happened to investors who asked that very question about Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL), by taking a look at the investment outcome over a ten year holding period.

Start date: 12/11/2015
$10,000

12/11/2015
  $26,164

12/10/2025
End date: 12/10/2025
Start price/share: $174.24
End price/share: $455.78
Starting shares: 57.39
Ending shares: 57.39
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 161.58%
Average annual return: 10.09%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $26,164.20

As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 10.09%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $26,164.20 today (as of 12/10/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 161.58% (something to think about: how might TYL shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Another great investment quote to think about:
“If you have trouble imagining a 20% loss in the stock market, you shouldn’t be in stocks.” — John Bogle