While $5,000 might not sound like a life-changing sum of money to invest in the share market, it can be if you are able to do it once a year for a long period of time.
According to Fidelity, as of the start of 2018, the local share market had provided an average annual return of 9.8% over the last three decades.
If the market were to provide the same level of return over the next 30 years and you invested $5,000 at the start of each year, in three decades your investment would have grown to be worth approximately $870,000.
With this in mind, here are three shares that I would consider investing that first $5,000 into in 2019:
Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)
Appen is a global leader in the development of high-quality, human annotated datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Given how these two markets are expected to grow significantly over the next decade, I believe Appen is likely to experience growing demand for its services over the long term. This could mean its strong earnings growth continues for the foreseeable future, making it a share I would want to own.
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL)
This global biotech company could be a great place to invest that first $5,000. CSL has been a consistently strong performer over the long term and shows no signs of breaking the trend in the near future. In FY 2018 the company posted a 15% increase in revenue to US$7.6 billion and a 29% jump in net profit after tax to US$1.73 billion. Management appears confident that its positive performance will continue in FY 2019 and has provided guidance of net profit after tax in the range of US$1,880 million to US$1,950 million.
REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)
Another quality option for that first $5,000 investment could be REA Group. The property listings company has defied expectations this year by achieving strong profit growth in the first quarter despite the cooling housing market. The realestate.com.au operator posted a 17% increase in quarterly revenue to $221.9 million and a 23% lift in quarterly EBITDA to $130.9 million. Management advised that this was driven by price changes, an improving product mix, and further depth penetration.
