There are a wonderfully diverse number of ways to make money. Some try their hand at punting on the horses, others in property development, while some look to invest in listed businesses in Australia and around the world.
While there can be arguments put both in favour and against all these strategies (and others), to my mind nothing is as appealing as the sharemarket for providing sustainable returns.
The return from equities as an asset class has pretty much beaten every other asset class over the long-term.
And if that's not enough reason to be positive on equities for building wealth, there is also the potential to 'get lucky' and identify a stock which can provide you with astronomical returns.
Consider for example the returns achieved by long-term investors in the following three companies.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) has made a fortune for founder Andrew Forrest and fellow investors by being 'in the right place, at the right time.' That place was iron ore and the time was during the recent commodity boom. With Fortescue's share price having rocketed 9,000% in the past decade, an investment of just $12,000 ten years ago would have you sitting in millionaire territory today.
Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC) has produced a share price gain of around 3,000% for investors since April 1999. A $35,000 investment back then has grown into a $1 million holding today, and that's before dividends!
One of the most recent success stories has been listed child care provider G8 Education Ltd (ASX: GEM). For those lucky enough to have bought stock in the company five years ago in July 2009 (when it was called Early Learning Services) and importantly to still be holding the shares today, they are sitting on a gain of around 6,300%. An investment of $16,000 five years ago would be worth $1 million today.
