A $10,000 investment can feel like a big decision.

That is why I think it helps to focus on businesses that can still look relevant many years from now.

Share prices will move around. Market sentiment will change. But over a decade, I want to own companies with strong positions, good leadership, and the ability to keep reinvesting for growth.

Three ASX shares I would consider buying with $10,000 are named below.

Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES)

Wesfarmers is one of the ASX shares I would be comfortable owning for the long term.

The company is often described as the owner of Bunnings and Kmart, which is true, but I think the bigger story is its culture and capital allocation.

Wesfarmers has a long record of building strong retail businesses, improving them over time, and moving capital into areas where it sees attractive returns.

Bunnings remains a dominant home improvement business, and Kmart has become a powerful value retailer. The company also has exposure to office products, health, data, digital initiatives, loyalty, and other growth options. That mix gives Wesfarmers more than one way to create value.

The valuation can look expensive at times, and I would always prefer to buy during a pullback. But with a decade-long mindset, I think quality deserves a premium.

ResMed Inc (ASX: RMD)

ResMed is another ASX share I would want in a long-term portfolio.

The company operates in sleep health and respiratory care, areas supported by significant global healthcare needs.

I like that ResMed is connected to both devices and ongoing patient support. Machines are important, but masks, accessories, software, data, and connected care can help create recurring revenue over time.

Sleep apnoea also remains underdiagnosed in many markets. If more people are tested and treated, ResMed has a long runway for growth.

Healthcare shares can go through difficult periods, and ResMed has faced investor concerns around competition and changing treatment options. But I think the long-term demand for better sleep and breathing care remains attractive.

Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)

Macquarie is a very different kind of business. It is exposed to global financial markets, infrastructure, commodities, energy transition, asset management, and private markets. That means earnings can be lumpy from year to year.

I like that Macquarie has shown an ability to adapt as markets change. It has built a global platform across areas where expertise, relationships, and capital matter.

The world needs ongoing investment in infrastructure, energy systems, data centres, transport, and other real assets. Macquarie is positioned to play a role in many of those areas.

I would not expect smooth returns every year. But over a decade, I think Macquarie has the potential to keep finding attractive opportunities.

Foolish Takeaway

If I were investing $10,000 for the next decade, I would focus on businesses that can keep compounding through different conditions.

Wesfarmers brings retail discipline and capital allocation; ResMed provides exposure to global healthcare demand; and Macquarie adds a more flexible financial and infrastructure growth angle.

Together, I think they would give me a mix of quality, resilience, and long-term opportunity, which is what I believe a 10-year ASX portfolio needs.

The post How I’d invest $10,000 in ASX shares for the next decade appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• How to build a successful ASX dividend portfolio
• 3 of the best ASX dividend stocks to supplement your superannuation
• Buy, hold, sell: L1 Long Short Fund, REA, Wesfarmers shares
• How much superannuation do you need to earn $5,000 a month in passive income?
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today

Motley Fool contributor Grace Alvino has positions in Wesfarmers. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Macquarie Group, ResMed, and Wesfarmers. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended ResMed. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Macquarie Group and Wesfarmers. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can take a lot of the guesswork out of investing, allowing investors to pick a theme or index they’d like to track, then trusting in the ETF manager to build a portfolio which fits the bill.

Index tracking ETFs, such as those that seek to replicate the performance of the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), for example, are popular; however, if you’re looking for outsized gains, it can pay to look further afield into sectors that have strong economic tailwinds behind them.

While past performance is no guarantee of future performance, let’s have a look at three such funds that have done well over the past year.

Global X Hydrogen ETF (ASX: HGEN)

This ETF is a relatively small one, with just $45 million in assets under management.

The fund aims to invest in companies that stand to benefit from the advancement of the global hydrogen industry.

The fund’s website adds:

This includes companies involved in hydrogen production; the integration of hydrogen into energy systems; and the development/manufacturing of hydrogen fuel cells, electrolysers, and other technologies related to the utilisation of hydrogen as an energy source.

The fund has returned 98.5% over the past year after falling back 5.2% over the past month.

Global X Semiconductor ETF (ASX: SEMI)

This fund “seeks to invest in companies that stand to potentially benefit from the broader adoption of tech-enabled devices that require semiconductors”.

This is a much larger fund, with $1.1 billion in funds under management.

Some of the fund’s top holdings include Micron Technolog, SK Hynix, Nvidia, and Intel.

This fund has returned 136.4% over the past year and 83.5% year to date.

Betashares Energy Transition Metals ETF (ASX: XMET)

This fund aims to track an index providing exposure to global companies in the energy transition metals field – think metals such as lithium, copper, nickel, and graphite.

The fund’s website says:

The transition from fossil fuels to clean energy solutions is driving growth in a range of disruptive products and processes such as renewable energy generation, battery storage solutions, and electric vehicles, all of which are critically dependent on the select group of energy transition metals that XMET provides exposure to.

The fund’s top holdings include PLS Group Ltd (ASX: PLS), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC).

This fund has returned 83.9% over the past year.

The post 3 ASX ETFs that have returned better than 80% over the past year appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• What did the market look like 10 years ago? Here’s what’s changed for the ASX 200
• SK Hynix IPOs in the US. Here’s what that means for ASX investors
• How much superannuation do you need to earn $5,000 a month in passive income?
• Lithium prices are cooling. Here’s what that means for these ASX lithium shares
• Experts name 3 big-name ASX 200 shares to sell

Motley Fool contributor Cameron England has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended BHP Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

Look at the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) today, and it appears reassuringly familiar.

Banks and miners still dominate.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), and CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) still sit near the top of the index, exactly as they did a decade ago.

Yet almost every force that actually drives those companies has inverted since 2016.

That contrast is worth exploring further

The ASX 200 index has climbed, but not spectacularly

In mid-2016 the ASX 200 sat around 5,200 points.

Today it trades near 8,800.

That is a capital gain of roughly 69% over ten years, or approximately 5.4% per annum before dividends.

Including dividends and franking credits, the total return has been meaningfully better.

Since inception, the index has returned approximately 8.53% per annum including dividends, compared to 4.17% excluding them.

The interest rate environment has completely reversed

This is the biggest change, and it explains most of the others.

In 2016 the RBA was cutting.

The cash rate sat at 1.75% in July that year before falling to 1.50%, a record low at the time.

Money was cheap, and investors were being pushed out of cash and into shares in search of any yield at all.

Today the RBA has hiked three times in 2026 alone, taking the cash rate to 4.35%, its highest level since 2011.

Furthermore, Governor Michele Bullock told reporters after the June decision:

Today’s decision does not rule out further tightening in monetary policy if that is what is required to bring inflation down.

A decade ago, low rates inflated the valuations of anything with growth attached to it.

Today, high rates are systematically deflating them.

The commodities that move the market have changed

In 2016 the market’s obsession was Chinese steel demand and the iron ore price, which had collapsed from above US$100 per tonne to below US$50.

BHP had just slashed its dividend by nearly 75%, cutting it from US62 cents per share to US16 cents and abandoning its progressive dividend policy.

The mood around the miners was bleak.

Today the story is completely different.

For the first time in BHP’s 136-year history, copper earnings exceeded iron ore contributions in the first half of FY26. This is driven by AI data centre construction, electric vehicles, and grid infrastructure investment.

Moreover, BHP plans to grow copper-equivalent production at 3% to 4% per year through 2035.

The commodity cycle did not necessarily recover, but rather it was replaced by a different one.

Entire sectors did not exist

Perhaps the most striking change is what was absent in 2016.

The S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) did not launch until February 2020.

Artificial intelligence did not exist as an investable theme in any form. Lithium was a curiosity rather than an industry. Lastly, data centres were basic infrastructure, not a growth story.

Every one of those has since become a defining feature of the market, and in several cases a source of both enormous gains and brutal losses.

What has not changed for the ASX 200

Financials and materials remain the two largest sectors on the ASX, exactly as they were in 2016.

The big four banks still anchor the index.

Australia is still, fundamentally, a market of banks and miners with a healthcare giant attached.

For all the disruption of the past decade, the structural shape of the ASX has proven remarkably durable.

Foolish takeaway

The lesson from ten years of ASX 200 history is not that everything changes.

It is that the drivers change while the names stay the same.

An investor who bought BHP in 2016 was buying an iron ore business in a rate-cutting world. An investor buying BHP today is buying a copper business in a rate-hiking world.

Same ticker, but an entirely different investment.

The post What did the market look like 10 years ago? Here’s what’s changed for the ASX 200 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• 3 ASX ETFs that have returned better than 80% over the past year
• Would Warren Buffett buy CSL shares?
• How much superannuation do you need to earn $5,000 a month in passive income?
• CSL shares are up 35% since early June. Is the recovery here to stay?
• How much could the CBA share price rise in the next year?

Motley Fool contributor Mark Verhoeven has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended CSL. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended BHP Group and CSL. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.