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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

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 decade-long holding period for an investor who was considering Charter Communications Inc (NASD: CHTR) back in 2011, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 05/05/2011
$10,000

05/05/2011
$116,931

05/04/2021
End date: 05/04/2021
Start price/share: $57.53
End price/share: $672.86
Starting shares: 173.82
Ending shares: 173.82
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 1,069.58%
Average annual return: 27.86%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $116,931.59

As we can see, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 27.86%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $116,931.59 today (as of 05/04/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,069.58% (something to think about: how might CHTR 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:
“Don’t wait for the perfect time, you will wait forever. Always take advantage of the time you’re given and make it perfect.” — Daymond John