Long term investments mean that you must be committed to the future value you see in the stock you’re investing your hard earned money into. Sometimes this is with new start ups that others may not see the value in yet, you’re one of the ones that is willing to dive deep into the project and will likely be one of the ones that is rewarded in the long term through the growth of the the stock and through dividends. Another way to look at it is that your investment long term has a better potential for growth vs not investing it and losing a percentage of value to inflation.