“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 ten year holding period possibly?
Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASD: AMD) back in 2016: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full ten year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.
| Start date: | 01/07/2016 |
|
|||
| End date: | 01/06/2026 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $2.28 | ||||
| End price/share: | $214.35 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 4,385.96 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 4,385.96 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 9,301.32% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 57.47% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $939,850.57 | ||||
As we can see, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 57.47%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $939,850.57 today (as of 01/06/2026). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 9,301.32% (something to think about: how might AMD 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:
“If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.” — George Soros
