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“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

— Warren Buffett

The investment philosophy practiced by Warren Buffett calls for investors to take a long-term horizon when making an investment, such as a twenty year holding period (or even longer), and reconsider making the investment in the first place if unable to envision holding the stock for at least five years. Today, we look at how such a long-term strategy would have done for investors in Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASD: AMD) back in 1999, holding through to today.

Start date: 04/01/1999
$10,000

04/01/1999
$32,687

03/29/2019
End date: 03/29/2019
Start price/share: $7.81
End price/share: $25.52
Starting shares: 1,280.41
Ending shares: 1,280.41
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 226.76%
Average annual return: 6.10%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $32,687.23

As shown above, the twenty year investment result worked out well, with an annualized rate of return of 6.10%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 20 years ago into $32,687.23 today (as of 03/29/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 226.76% (something to think about: how might AMD shares perform over the next 20 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

Another great investment quote to think about:
“Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.” — Warren Buffett