Talk about investing success stories ...

Roger Lowenstein wrote that, "A Berkshire stockholder once complained that there were no more franchises like Coca-Cola left. [Charlie] Munger [billionaire business partner of Warren Buffett] tartly rebuked him. 'Why should it be easy to do something that, if done well two or three times, will make your family rich for life?'".

Today, I came across a perfect example of that when reading the Progressive report. The insurance company had the following statement in its annual report:

"We are convinced that the best way to maximize shareholder value is to achieve these financial objectives and policies consistently. A shareholder who purchased 100 shares of Progressive for $1,800 in our first public stock offering on April 15, 1971, owned 92,264 shares on December 31, 2007, with a market value of $1,767,778, for a 21.0% compounded annual return, compared to the 7.6% return achieved by investors in the Standard & Poor's 500 during the same period. In addition, the shareholder received a $2.00 per common share special dividend of $184,528 in 2007, bringing total dividends received to $221,846 since the shares were purchased."

If that right there doesn't convince you that finding great, long-term holdings and leaving them alone to compound is a way to wealth, don't even bother. Just pack it up, buy an index fund, and forget about it.