How long you've registered your domain name into the future (5 years, 10 years, etc.) has no effect. It is not about a commitment to the future, but how long the site has been up and running in the past - showing it was not a spam site, just put up to make a quick buck.

From www.webconfs.com/age-of-domain-and-serps-article-6.php - "In the latest Google update that SEOs call the Jagger Update, some of the big changes seen were the importance given to age; age of incoming links, age of web content, and the date the domain was registered. Even though the domain's age is a factor, critics believe it only gets a little weight in the algorithm. Since the age of your domain is something you have no control over, it doesn't necessarily mean that your site isn't going to rank well in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It does mean, however, that you will have to work harder in order to build up your site popularity and concentrate on factors that you can control, link inbound links and the type of content you present on your website."

What I find in practice is that the older the domain name and it's web site, the more frequently the searchbots may stop by to visit it. So a new site design with brand new content and good SEO techniques included OR the addition of a link directory may get noticed faster than a brand new domain name and site that the search engines are not familiar with yet.

Finally, merely holding onto a domain name that has never had a web site built for it will have virtually no effect on helping it suddenly achieve rankings just because a site was finally built. It only has impact in conjunction with the age of the web content that it displays and has displayed in the past.