Investors in their 40s have plenty of time to allow their assets to compound in value. If I were in my 40s, I'd want to pick ASX share investments that could deliver pleasing capital growth and a little bit of passive income, too.

There is definitely a place for ASX growth shares in a portfolio, but I think exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and certain listed investment companies (LICs) can provide investors with a hands-off approach and deliver good results.

I'm going to talk about an ASX ETF and a business that predominately acts as a LIC that could work well for investors.

MFF Capital Investments Ltd (ASX: MFF)

This company has acted as an LIC for most of its life but recently added an operational element to its business by acquiring the fund manager Montaka.

I think most Aussies would benefit from having some exposure to the major US tech giants. They are some of the strongest businesses the world has ever seen, and they continue to invest to improve the strength of their market positions while also opening up new growth avenues.

Its biggest positions include Alphabet, Amazon, Mastercard, Visa, Meta Platforms, American Express, Bank of America, Home Depot, and Microsoft.

I think there's a high likelihood these businesses can continue increasing their underlying value thanks to their competitive advantages and ongoing reinvestment in profit generation.

The business regularly increases its dividend payments, though that's not guaranteed to continue. It also typically trades at a pleasing discount to the underlying value, as measured by the pre-tax net tangible assets (NTA) (compared to the MFF share price). It tells investors its latest NTA each week.

I think this investment can provide a pleasing mix of passive income and capital growth.

Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS)

One of my favourite exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is the VanEck MSCI International Quality ETF (ASX: QUAL). But some investors may be looking for greater diversification or lower fees, which is what the VGS ETF can provide.

The VGS ETF is a very effective investment for investors who want to benefit from the long-term growth of the global share market. It's invested in more than 1,300 businesses from a wide array of major developed countries.

There is a weighting of more than 0.5% to the following countries: the US (74.9%), Japan (5.4%), the UK (3.6%), Canada (3%), France (2.7%), Switzerland (2.3%), Germany (2.3%), the Netherlands (1.1%), Sweden (0.9%), Italy (0.7%), Spain (0.7%), and Denmark (0.6%).

All of this diversification comes at an annual management cost of just 0.18%, which I think is very appealing.

Plenty of these companies are among the best in their country (or the world) at what they do. According to Vanguard, the fund has an overall return on equity (ROE) of 19.6%, which shows how much profit these businesses are making compared to the amount of shareholder money retained in the business. An ROE of around 20% (for a portfolio) is a very strong number, in my view.

The portfolio's biggest positions include Apple, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Tesla, Broadcom, JPMorgan Chase, and Eli Lilly.

This could be one of the easiest ways to gain broad exposure to the global share market and hopefully deliver good returns.