I'm a big believer that investing in ASX shares can make a world of difference in someone's long-term personal finances and wealth overall.
Investing in the right companies could make a world of difference to how much our portfolio is worth in five or ten years from now.
The three ASX shares I'll highlight are exciting opportunities, in my view, and I'm optimistic of significant returns in the coming years.
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Nexgen Energy (Canada) CDI (ASX: NXG)
Energy could be one of the challenging areas for the world to contend with in the coming decade, as coal power generation reduces, but energy demand increases because of data centres and AI.
Nuclear energy could be the answer for a number of countries, particularly places like the US, as well as certain European and Asian countries.
Nexgen owns a project in Canada where it's developing the Arrow deposit, which is expected to become one of the world's largest and lowest-costing uranium projects.
In the coming years, I think there's a fair chance uranium prices will increase as energy demand rises. Even at today's prices, the ASX share could make significant cash flow once the project is operational and justify a higher Nexgen share price.
VanEck MSCI International Quality ETF (ASX: QUAL)
I believe that the best businesses are likely to deliver the strongest returns over the long term because of their ability to compound earnings, leading to compounding shareholder returns.
There are a variety of ways to judge whether a business is high quality or not. The QUAL ETF aims to invest in 300 of the best companies in the world.
The fund looks for three factors to decide if a business has world-leading quality: a high return on equity (ROE), stable (and growing) earnings, and low debt levels.
Thanks to that combination of elements, the QUAL ETF has returned an average of 16.5% per year over the last five years. While past performance is not a guarantee of future returns, a similar sort of return over the next five years could double an investor's money.
With the holdings from a variety of countries and sectors, I think it ticks the diversification box effectively.
Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL)
This ASX share is one of the leading options for a combination of dividends and capital growth, in my opinion.
It owns a portfolio of assets, with both listed and unlisted businesses, including telecommunications, resources, swimming schools, agriculture, credit, industrial property, building products, and plenty of other areas.
The company's existing portfolio can achieve growth over time as those businesses deliver on their plans. Soul Patts regularly makes additional investments with its portfolio, adding further growth for the company.
Its portfolio of assets generates an impressive level of cash flow each year, which enables the company to reward investors with a growing dividend, using a majority of the funds, and reinvest the remainder in additional opportunities.
A combination of a growing portfolio and rising dividends (from the cash flow) is a winning combination and could help our wealth building and annual cash flow. That's exactly how I'm using my Soul Patts holding.
