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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 2020, investors considering an investment into shares of CBRE Group Inc (NYSE: CBRE) 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: 09/08/2020
$10,000

09/08/2020
  $33,943

09/04/2025
End date: 09/04/2025
Start price/share: $47.63
End price/share: $161.69
Starting shares: 209.95
Ending shares: 209.95
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 239.47%
Average annual return: 27.74%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $33,943.81

As shown above, the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 27.74%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $33,943.81 today (as of 09/04/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 239.47% (something to think about: how might CBRE shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

One more investment quote to leave you with:
“You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, ’cause you might not get there.” — Yogi Berra