The most recent Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) Weekly economic report reveals that the banking giant's economists still believe that the Reserve Bank of Australia will keep the cash rate on hold at 1.5% until at least January 2021.
That's not a typo, that's another two and a quarter years that the bank expects rates to be at this record low.
And considering how gradual the central bank's rate rises are likely to be when they do eventually come, it could be upwards of five years until we see rates at "normal" levels.
In light of this, I continue to believe that it would be better to skip savings accounts and put your money to work in the share market instead.
If I had $10,000 sitting in a bank account I would consider investing it in one of these three shares:
Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)
Appen is a leading developer of high-quality, human annotated datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence. While its shares are certainly on the expensive side, I believe that patient investors could still do very well from a long-term investment if the company continues to grow along with the machine learning and AI markets. Both are predicted to grow at an explosive rate over the next decade.
Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS)
Bravura Solutions is a fast-growing provider of software solutions for the wealth management, life insurance, and funds administration industries. Its key product is the increasingly popular Sonata wealth management platform. In FY 2018 Sonata revenue increased 32% to $122.5 million, meaning it now contributes 55% of total revenue. Due to the quality of the product and the significant addressable market, I expect this strong growth could continue for some time to come.
Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)
I think that this pizza chain operator could be a great buy and hold option for investors due to its ambitious but achievable growth plans. Management intends to almost double its store network over the next seven years in the existing territories that it operates in. I believe that if it delivers on this and can lift its margins by leveraging technology then it will lead to strong earnings growth over the next few years.
