I'm a big fan of buy and hold investing and believe it is the best way for investors to grow their wealth.
To demonstrate how successful it can be, 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.
With that in mind, here's how you would have fared if you had invested in these ASX shares in 2012:
NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)
If you had bought this data centre operator's shares 10 years ago, you would have done very well for yourself. Thanks to the structural shift to the cloud and its world class portfolio of data centres across Australia, NextDC has delivered consistently strong revenue and EBITDA growth.
This has led to the company's shares generating an average total return of 19.94% per annum over the period. This means that if you had invested $20,000 into NextDC's shares back in 2012, you would have grown your investment to a sizeable $123,000 today.
ResMed Inc. (ASX: RMD)
Another ASX share that has smashed the market over the last decade is sleep treatment focused medical device company ResMed. Like NextDC, it has delivered consistently solid sales and earnings growth over the period. This has been driven by its industry-leading sleep treatment solutions and the growing awareness and prevalence of sleep disorders.
ResMed's strong operating performance has led to its shares generating a total average return of 26.84% per annum for investors since 2012. This means that anyone lucky enough to have invested $20,000 into the company's shares 10 years ago, would have seen the value of their investment grow to be worth a massive ~$215,000 today.
