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 10 years ago would be worth today.
This time around I have picked out the three shares that are listed below:
Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG)
Investing in an appliance manufacturer and distributor may not be very exciting, but the returns over the last 10 years certainly have been. Breville's success at home and internationally has led to solid earnings and revenue growth and sent its shares hurtling higher. This has led to its shares generating an average total return of 29.2% per annum since the start of 2010. This means $20,000 invested in Breville's shares would now be worth a whopping ~$260,000.
Carsales.Com Ltd (ASX: CAR)
The Carsales share price has been a strong performer over the last decade. Gone are the days where consumers would look through newspapers for cars to buy, now they go online. This dramatic shift to online listings has led to Carsales delivering consistently strong earnings growth over the period. Unsurprisingly, this has taken its shares notably higher over the 10 years, leading to an average total return of 15.5% per annum. This would have turned a $20,000 investment into $84,500.
Codan Limited (ASX: CDA)
Codan is an electronics products company which has grown from a small cap to a market capitalisation of almost $1.5 billion over the last decade. This has been driven by the increasing demand for the company's metal detectors globally. Over the decade Codan's shares have generated an average annual total return of 21.6%. Which means that $20,000 invested in its shares would have grown to be worth $141,000 today.
