I'm a big fan of buy and hold investing and believe it is one of the best ways for investors to grow their wealth.
To demonstrate how successful it can be, every so often I like to pick out a number of popular ASX shares to see how much a single $20,000 investment ten years ago would be worth today.
This time around I have picked out the three shares that are listed below:
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU)
The Altium share price has been a very strong performer over the last decade. Thanks to the growing popularity of its printed circuit board design software and the emergence of the Internet of Things, Altium has been growing its sales and earnings at an explosive rate in recent years. This has led to its shares generating a mouth-watering total return of 65% per annum over the period. This would have turned a $20,000 investment into just short of $3 million. And with Altium intent on growing its revenues from an estimated US$205 million to US$215 million in FY 2020 to US$500 million by FY 2025, I doubt shareholders will be in a rush to part with their shares just yet.
Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT)
The Flight Centre share price may have hit turbulence this year, but it has still been a long-term market beater. Thanks to its domination of the local market and its international expansion, Flight Centre's shares have provided an average total return of 13.3% per annum over the last 10 years. This means that an investment of $20,000 into Flight Centre's shares 10 years ago would have grown to be worth ~$69,500 today.
Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC)
Long term shareholders of Ramsay Health Care have also done very well over the last decade. The private hospital operator has grown its operations significantly over this time to a total of 480 facilities across 11 countries. And thanks to growing demand for healthcare services due to ageing populations and increasing chronic disease burden, Ramsay has delivered solid earnings growth over the period. This has led to its shares generating an average total return of 22.2% per annum. Which means a $20,000 investment 10 years ago would be worth $148,500 today.
