Toward the end of the year, you may be putting your extra cash into holiday gifts. But it's also a good idea to offer yourself something. I'm talking about the possibility of future wealth. And that's by investing in companies with solid long-term prospects. Why buy now? Because so many of these top stocks are trading at dirt cheap valuations.

You can start investing -- or add to your current portfolio -- with any amount of money. But here I'll talk about investing $500. With this amount, you can get in on all three of the following stories, or make a bigger investment in just one. Let's take a look at three stocks to buy before you ring in the new year.

Disney (NYSE: DIS) is heading for a 35% decline this year. So, share performance clearly hasn't been anything to cheer about. What are investors' concerns? Costs. Disney has been struggling with higher costs in various areas of its business. This has weighed on earnings and on demand for the stock.

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Source Fool.com