I'm a big fan of buy and hold investing and believe it is one of the best ways to grow your wealth.

To demonstrate just how successful this investment strategy can be with shares, I like to see how much a single $20,000 investment in certain ASX 200 shares 10 years ago would be worth today.

Let's see how investments in these shares have fared during this time:

Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG)

The first ASX 200 share that we're going to look at is Breville. It is one of the world's leading appliance manufacturers and the owner of brands such as Breville, Sage, Kambrook, Baratza, and LELIT.

It has been growing its sales and earnings at a solid over the past decade thanks to its investment in research and development, global expansion, and acquisitions. Unsurprisingly, this had led to Breville's shares generating market-beating returns over the period.

Breville's shares have achieved an average total return of 18.3% per annum since 2014. This means that a $20,000 investment would have grown to be worth almost $107,000 today.

NextDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)

Another ASX 200 share that has delivered market-beating returns is NextDC.

It is an Australian technology company enabling business transformation through innovative data centre outsourcing solutions, connectivity services, and infrastructure management software.

The data centre market has been a great place to be over the last decade. Thanks to the ongoing shift to the cloud and the artificial intelligence boom, demand for capacity in its centres has been very strong. This has led to NextDC's revenue and operating earnings growing at a rapid rate.

Since 2014, its shares have generated an average return of 19.7% per annum. This means that a $20,000 investment in NextDC shares back then would have grown to be worth ~$211,000 today.

Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST)

Finally, let's take a look at Northern Star. It is one of Australia's leading gold miners.

It has grown its production materially over the past decade, which has put a rocket under both its earnings and share price.

For example, in FY 2014, the company sold 210,055 ounces of gold with an average price of A$1,410 per ounce. Whereas 10 years later, in FY 2024, it sold 1,621,000 ounces at an average price of A$3,031 per ounce.

This has led to Northern Star's shares generating an average return of 32.3% per annum, which would have turned a $20,000 investment in 2014 into almost $280,000 today.