Throughout the history of time there have been 2 assets that, over the long term, have always continued to become more valuable. Stocks and real estate.
Stocks
The first ever stock market was created in 1611 in Amsterdam. A company sold shares of their companies to investors and paid them dividends in order to raise money. Soon after, other companies followed and the first stock market was created. Since then, the stock market has continued to exist, making it more than 400 years old. For those 400 years the overall stock market has continued to go up. However, it is hard to prove that due to the lack of market data from that time to present. For the data that we do have, dating back to the year 1896, Marketwatch.com was able to create a chart which displays the market trends from the year 1896 to 2020:
Overall, it is clear that the market has significantly increased from 1896 to 2020. However, there were times where the market crashed and took quite a while to recover. It is the times like these that cause skepticism and fear among the stock market. The fear of not knowing which direction the stock market will turn causes many to stay away from investing in the stock market. It's also important to remember that not all stocks will appreciate over time. There are many stocks that have decreased to 0 over time. Although, if you take a step back to understand the market as a whole and the long term upward trending market, the fear begins to diminish. The same goes for the 2nd asset.
Real Estate
We all know that on earth, real estate is not infinite. There is a limited supply of real estate with an increasing population. As the population increases, the demand for real estate goes up - driving the price up. The following chart from Investopedia.com displays the increasing housing prices over time since 1975.
As you can see, the average home price has continued on an upward trend - although there were dips, the trend is upwards. It is important to note that similar to stocks, not all housing prices increase. There are some neighbourhoods that have not yet fulled recovered from the 2008 recession. There are some areas where demand has remained stagnant or even decreased causing the housing price to decrease.
Conclusion
To sum it up, overtime on average stocks and real estate have continued to appreciate in value. Investing in stocks or real estate could be a great way to increase your wealth overtime so that you do your strong due diligence and avoid the assets that have not followed the trend.