Ethical Investing.....

[MsTryska]

this year i've decided i'm going to stop living paycheck to paycheck and start saving and investing some money. I wrote out a 5-year plan and everything.



Does anybody here use ethical investing to make money?


if so how do you go about doing it?


right now, i'm just flipping stuff into a short term CD, until i have a decent amount, but then when i do, i think i want to put it into a mutual fund. soemthing easily liquidatable, but at the same itme, i don't want to give my money to evil corporations that are raping natural reseources and indigenous people.

[AllegroRondo]

1. There are mutual funds that specialize in this

so you don't have to do a ton of research

[DinahMoeHum]

6. You can get a list of these funds thru Co-op America/Social Invest

www.socialinvest.org

Good luck and good hunting.


:smoke:

[MsTryska]

7. Thanks!

I've just been looking at the Parnassus Fund and the Domini Social Index.

it's good to know there are funds out there that are doing this sort of thing. makes it easier than trying to cherry pick on my own.

[K-W]

2. I always see ads in progressive publications

for ethical mutual funds. Might want to grab a mother jones or something.

[sui generis]

3. "ethical" investing

is very difficult to do successfully. It's almost an oxymoron.

If you understand that most of the operating costs of companies are in regulatory and compliance issues after payroll, then companies who are willing to break the law, re-write the law, or keep headcount and salaries low or outsourced are going to show the best earnings profiles and the best returns on investments.

"Ethical" investing is sadly a riskier strategy, and nothing you invest in as a little guy should be risky.

On the other hand, you can do good with your investments. When you are a shareholder, vote. Write to the board, get involved however you can. Help change it from the inside. Realize that things aren't always black and white - some corporations are providing jobs and higher than median incomes to people who would otherwise be unemployed. Yin and yang - they're doing it at the cost of American jobs. Investigate your mutual funds if you go that route - be comfortable with your choices. There is no ultimate "good" without a balancing "evil" somewhere else, most especially in a successful business.

[K-W]

5. Being a shareholder means very little.

You dont really get a say at all.

Generally with progressive mutual funds, the idea is to apply certain labor/enviroment/etc standards and only invest in corporations that meet the standards.

If you want to be ethically perfect, you really shouldnt invest at all, but only investing in corporations that meet certain standards is a good start I suppose.

[MsTryska]

8. Can one be ethicallly perfect and actually become rich too?

my mom and i were having this conversation yesterday, we both decided that was a negatory.

[K-W]

9. Probably not, but it depends on your ethics.

I cant really imagine a reasonable ethical system that wouldnt condemn amassing great wealth, but alot of people try hard enough that they think they have.

[MsTryska]

10. I don't get that tho?

why would it be unethical to amass great wealth? (provided you didn't amass it at the expense of others, and that you willingly give to others as well)


there's nothing inherently wrong with being rich, i don't think.

[K-W]

11. There certainly is. There cannot be rich people without poor people.

Money doesnt grow on trees. It represents commodities and work. Let me give you a hint, if you a rich, you didnt do most of the work that went into the value of the money. Someone else did do that work, and they didnt get full value in return. And if your wealth is inherited, a similar transaction happened in the past.

When you have the opportunity to get things you dont deserve, the ethical thing to do is to not take it.

[MsTryska]

20. I fundamentally disagree.

Everything has duality.

jsut as without darkness there is no light.


I can't subscribe to keeping everybody at one level where we're all poor. or fair to middling.

what's the point of that? that's a hopeless situation.

[K-W]

22. Not letting people starve is not keeping everyone on the same level.

It is about a level playing field and giving people a wage that matches the value of thier work, not the lowest wage the market will allow.

Being successful and being rich are two different things. There is nothing wrong with a system that rewards hard work. There is something wrong with a system that isnt even close to merit based where a small minority reaps the lionshare of the reward for the work done by the whole nation.

[MsTryska]

23. That i can agree with.

I must have misunderstood your initial comments.

[AllegroRondo]

13. Or take it one step further

buy stock in companies that don't meet your standards, then go to the shareholder meetings and speak about it. Bring up your ideas and get constructive on making changes.

[K-W]

14. stockholders have very little power

in most corporations

[AllegroRondo]

17. True, but you do get to go to the shareholder meetings

most companies require that any shareholder that wishes to address the meeting must be given a limited amount of time to speak, which is more of a voice than the average person gets.

[thoughtanarchist]

4. getting you feet wet

is a recommended practice for investing.

starting with index funds and / or index-based ETFs and slowly moving into the arena of individual stocks.

When you are at the point where you feel ready to buy individual stocks, (when you have your safety net saved up, you have your 401K near max, you have paid off all revolving debt, and you still have enough disposable income to invest), then use your favorite books, guides, and other info to screen for solid balance sheets first, then check out the best prospects on buyblue or some such to see if the corp. is worthy of your support.

[sweetheart]

12. invest in what you can touch

Like other posters mention, its an oxymoron, as the very principals of
the financial products you would invest in, support the wall street
takeover of finance... when if you look at the behaviour of the wall
street rich themselves, they've left that lot behind, and are in to
private equity in a big way. (wall street talk for doing investments
directly with businesses, and cutting out the stock markets and all
the hubub of sarbanes oxley (the accounting stupid law that gives
accounting consultants extra pork after the enron/worldcom crimes).

You can as well invest yourself in property location location.... ,
shifting an inventory on Ebay, or fixing up derelict properties for
resale. Even if you put the word out, perhaps spreading some investment
around directly to businesses that are forming in your area as "private
equity". Otherwise, you are a speculator, an economic agent that
wants the horse to magically make you money by someone else slaving to
do the work.... so the ethics of economic feudalism being what they
are, its quite sad what some ethical investing gets to.

Its no irony, that the wall street pro's are big on going directly
to the source and forming a massive growth in firms like carlysle,
that take the capitalist surplus and invest it directly in things
they can touch. Even warren buffet famously has avoided virtual
business for pragmatic things he could touch... it seems a wise
maxim from the pros.

Gold, oil and some other value-holding commodities will surely
appreciate the whole time the AWOL gang is running around "spreading
democracy with death squads".

Good luck... caveat emptor buyer beware... may the gods
favour you with clear vision and a stiff wind. :-)

[oneold1-4u]

15. Check out Canada

They have some investments in the US but they will still be around when the US $ will cost you 2 Canadian. Australia or the URO also against US failure caused by corporation financial fraud.
Remember the old saying that you can have it all but you can't keep it dusted! When it is dirty enough, you won't find it in the muck.

[MsTryska]

19. I've been thinking about investing in

the socialists actually. the dollars very weak right now, and it might help me not take too much of a bath with the "play" money. (ie retirement money - i've got 30 years yet, so i can afford to be risky with that)

[fob]

16. I have a 401k to roll over and was looking for a similar thing, I was

looking for progressive investing. So far I've come across Portfolio 21 (www.portfolio21.com). Still checking it out.


NOTE: FOB does not endorse or currently use portfolio21, it is presented merely for informational purposes only. Your mileage may vary. Any similarity to any entity living or dead is purely coincidental. Contents may have shifted during shipping. Advice given by weight, not volume.

Thank you

[MsTryska]

18. Check out

Domini and Parnassus too.


I'm kinda digging on Domini at the moment, because they have an index fund.

[Technocrat058]

21. Soon you may not even be taxed!

If the new regulations get passed by the administration the taxes on investments and savings may be a thing of the past.