I'm a big fan of buy and hold investing and believe it is one of the best ways to grow your wealth.
This is because it allows investors to take advantage of the power of compounding. This is what happens when you generate returns on top of returns.
To demonstrate just how successful this investment strategy can be with ASX 200 shares, I like to look at how much a single $20,000 investment in certain shares 10 years ago would be worth today.
Let's see how investments in these three shares have fared during this time:
Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG)
The first ASX 200 share that has delivered big returns is Breville. It is one of the world's leading appliance manufacturers. As well as the eponymous Breville brand, it owns brands such as Sage, Kambrook, Baratza, and LELIT.
Thanks to Breville's ongoing and significant investment in research and development, its global expansion, and acquisitions, it has delivered strong sales and earnings growth over the last decade. This has led to market-beating returns for its shares over the period.
For example, over the past 10 years, Breville's shares have achieved an average total return of 18.6% per annum. This would have turned a $20,000 investment into approximately $110,000 today.
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)
Another ASX 200 share that has made its shareholders smile is investment bank Macquarie.
Due to the quality and diversity of its operations and its strong position in investment banking, Macquarie has delivered consistently strong profit growth over the past 10 years.
This has led to its shares outperforming both the market and the big four banks by some distance over the period.
For example, since this time in 2015, the investment bank's shares have recorded an average total return of 15.6% per annum. This would have turned a $20,000 investment in Macquarie's shares a decade ago into approximately $85,000 today.
NextDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)
A third ASX 200 share that has delivered market-beating returns over the past decade has been data centre operator NextDC.
Its data centres have been experiencing growing demand for capacity due to the structural shift to the cloud and the artificial intelligence boom. This has underpinned growing revenue and operating earnings over the years.
Unsurprisingly this sort of growth has done wonders for its share price. This has led to the company's shares more than doubling the market return since 2015 with an average total return of 22.2% per annum. This means that a $20,000 investment in NextDC shares back in 2015 would have grown to be worth almost $150,000 today.
