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“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

— Warren Buffett

This inspiring quote from Warren Buffett teaches us the importance of considering our investment time horizon when approaching any given investment: Could we envision ourselves holding the stock we are considering for many years? Even a five year holding period potentially?

For “buy-and-hold” investors taking a long-term view, what’s important isn’t the short-term stock market fluctuations that will inevitably occur, but what happens over the long haul. Looking back 5 years to 2019, investors considering an investment into shares of Tesla Inc (NASD: TSLA) may have been pondering this very question and thinking about their potential investment result over a full five year time horizon. Here’s how that would have worked out.

Start date: 09/16/2019
$10,000

09/16/2019
  $142,238

09/13/2024
End date: 09/13/2024
Start price/share: $16.19
End price/share: $230.29
Starting shares: 617.67
Ending shares: 617.67
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 1,322.42%
Average annual return: 70.11%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $142,238.47

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 70.11%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $142,238.47 today (as of 09/13/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,322.42% (something to think about: how might TSLA shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” — Warren Buffett