If you pick great companies, you don't need much money to invest. Take Mastercard (NYSE: MA), for example. Had you bought $100 of stock in 2006 when the company went public and left it alone, it would be worth a whopping $8,423 today.

Mastercard is one of the few dominant payment networks that connect the global economy. While investors probably won't see the same level of growth moving forward (Mastercard is a massive company at this point), investors can expect growth.

Mastercard plays an important role in how money moves globally. It's a payment network. Mastercard's payment network is like a telephone line: Data travels across it from point A to point B. When you swipe your Mastercard, information travels between the merchant and financial institutions to verify the funds and authorize the transaction. Mastercard makes money by charging a small percentage of each transaction.

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Source Fool.com