I believe that diversification is important to achieve satisfactory returns in the short-term and the long-term.
Diversification doesn't just mean spreading your money among Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) and Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS).
I think it's important that investors spread their money across different industries and different businesses that have good growth prospects.
Here are three I think fit the bill:
Greencross Limited (ASX: GXL)
Greencross is Australia's leading pet company with it network of Petbarn retail stores and Greencross vets. It also offers a variety of different services like pet insurance and grooming.
The pet industry is a growing one with the number of pets increasing alongside Australia's population. Petbarn has quite defensive earnings because it sells pet essentials like food and cat litter, which pets and pet owners can't go without. It's like a pet supermarket.
Greencross vets have defensive earnings because pets regularly visit vet. In-fact, each year three quarters of dogs and two quarters of cats go to the vet. I like to think of it as a pet hospital.
It's currently trading at 14x FY18's estimated earnings.
Medical Developments International Ltd (ASX: MVP)
Medical Developments is taking its medical products to the globe. It offers products for pain management, asthma, resuscitation and veterinary equipment.
It's trading at a very, very high valuation but it may be able to justify it if the company is able to grow its revenue and earnings as much as the market is expecting over the next few years.
It has an exciting future and long-term investors are really beginning to see their patience paying off.
iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV)
It's hard to find a more diverse offering than the S&P 500 that has some of the biggest companies in America among its top holdings.
Some of its top holdings include Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway.
American companies don't just generate earnings in America, they are truly global companies and they will keep getting bigger thanks to a growing global economy and the global population growth.
Foolish takeaway
All three shares offer investors promising long-term growth over the next decade. If I had to pick one it would definitely be Greencross. I think it's trading at good value, it's generating decent growth and has quite defensive earnings.
