Merry Christmas, Fools! If you've received cash as a Christmas present, then investing in ASX shares could be a great gift to buy for yourself.
How good would it be for a Christmas gift from 2023 to make a difference to our personal finances next year, in 2025, and possibly forever?
If I were going to invest some Christmas cash, I'd want to choose ideas that could perform strongly in both the shorter and longer term. Here are three suggestions.
Bailador Technology Investments Ltd (ASX: BTI)
This company focuses on investing in unlisted technology businesses that have attractive futures.
There are several characteristics Bailador looks for with these tech companies: run by founders, a proven business model with attractive unit economics, international revenue generation, a huge market opportunity and an ability to generate repeat revenue.
When you combine all of those factors, it's a good starting point to find tech companies that could do well over the long term.
At the moment, its biggest five investments, in valuation terms, are Siteminder Ltd (ASX: SDR), Rezdy, Access Telehealth, Rosterfy and Nosto.
With a large cash balance after selling some investments at a good profit, I think Bailador is well-positioned to invest in an uncertain market.
Over the three years to November 2023, its portfolio has delivered an average return per annum of 12.4%.
The ASX share also has a solid dividend yield, which is targeted at 4% of the company's net tangible assets (NTA).
Vaneck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (ASX: MOAT)
This is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invests in high-quality United States-based businesses.
It only invests in businesses with strong competitive advantages (or economic moats) that are expected to endure for many years.
After identifying these companies, the ETF's analysts will include those stocks in the portfolio only if they think the business is trading at a good value compared to its underlying value.
This combination has delivered solid returns, and I believe long-term outperformance can continue, though there's no certainty of that. Over the past three years, the MOAT ETF has delivered an average return per annum of 14.2%.
Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX: LOV)
Lovisa is an ASX retail share that sells affordable jewellery. It's not exactly the next big tech stock, but I think this business has enormous growth potential because of the company's efforts in rolling out stores globally.
It has many hundreds of stores around the world already, but I believe it can easily double in size thanks to growth in countries like the US, Canada, China, Mexico and Germany.
Lovisa makes solid profit from each store and its products have a low cost, so it's inexpensive and beneficial to open new stores. It makes a lot of sense to keep opening new stores around the world unless it's cannibalising other store sales.
If the ASX share can double its store count in the next five years, I think there's a good chance the profit can close to double as well, which could be very supportive of the Lovisa share price.
