If you're new to investing, don't worry if you don't have tens of thousands of dollars to invest in the share market. After all, even if you only have $5,000 to invest each year, you can still generate material wealth if you do it consistently over a long period of time.
Research by Fidelity shows that the Australian share market has generated an average total return of ~9.5% per annum over the last three decades. This means that if you invested $5,000 each year for the last 30 years and earned the market return, yours investments would now be worth a massive $824,000.
I think this demonstrates just how rewarding long-term buy and hold investing can be. With that in mind, here are three shares I would buy:
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU)
Altium is a printed circuit board-focused design software company that I believe is well-positioned to be a long-term market-beater. I'm very bullish on Altium due to its award-winning platform which is exposed to the growing Internet of Things (IoT) market. According to a recent presentation, global technology spending on IoT is expected to reach US$1.2 trillion in 2022. As the vast majority of IoT devices have printed circuit boards inside them, this should lead to increasing demand for its industry-leading Altium Designer product.
REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)
Another share which I think could provide strong returns for investors over the long term is REA Group. I'm a big fan of this property listings company due to its leadership position, high quality business model, and the recent rebound in the housing market. Considering that REA Group still delivered strong profit growth in FY 2019 despite the property downturn, I believe its earnings growth could accelerate in the second half of FY 2020 now that house prices are recovering strongly.
Serko Ltd (ASX: SKO)
At the small end of the market you'll find Serko. I believe it has enormous potential and could be well worth considering with a long term view. Serko is a fast-growing online travel booking and expense management provider. Its Zeno Travel product provides AI-powered end-to-end travel itineraries, cost control and travel policy compliance to corporate customer. Whereas its Zeno Expense product allows users to automate and streamline the expense administration function, identify out-of-policy expense claims, and prevent fraud. Serko has been growing very strongly in recent years and I feel confident there will be more of the same in FY 2020 and beyond.
