The concept of buying a share and holding for the long-term is easy, but doing it is much harder. Business prospects can be altered, momentum can shift and leadership can change.
I think it's much easier to invest for the long-term when you invest in shares that have long-term growth potential.
Here are three shares I'm going to hold for the next decade:
Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL)
Soul Patts is one of the oldest businesses on the ASX, having operated for around a century.
It is an investment conglomerate that makes investment decisions for the long-term. It has large investments in businesses like TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM), Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW) and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ASX: API).
Its management is shareholder-aligned because they themselves are significant shareholders of the business.
It has paid a dividend every single year through wars and economic crashes. Soul Patts will hopefully continue growing over the years ahead and I'm sure it will beat the market over the next decade.
Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC)
Ramsay is one of the world's largest private hospital operators. Healthcare is a growing and defensive industry, which is why I believe Ramsay is in such a good spot.
The ageing population means that more and more patients should go through Ramsay's doors, as long as hospital cover doesn't become too expensive. The number of people over 65 is expected to grow by 75% over the next two decades.
Ramsay has grown very well since 2000 and I expect that it will continue to do so as it expands into other geographical areas such as, potentially, China.
Rural Funds is a real estate investment trust (REIT) and owns farmland which it leases to high-quality tenants.
Farmland has been a useful asset for many hundreds of years and I expect it will continue being useful for at least the next decade, if not many decades more. The only potential problem I see in the future is 'lab grown meat', which could make some of the cattle and poultry farms less valuable. However, the non-meat farms should have excellent futures.
Rural Funds will likely keep growing at a pleasing rate as it acquires more farms and makes good use of capital expenditure to improve the rental income from each farm.
Foolish takeaway
I'm a shareholder of all three of these businesses because I strongly believe in the long-term growth potential of each of them. At the current prices I'd pick Ramsay if I had to choose one, due to its share price fall to an almost 52-week low.
