a life simply

Action 1. Put your money in local credit unions.

Action 2. Cut up your corporate credit cards.

Action 3. Move your IRA to socially conscious funds.

Action 4. Play around with some micro-financing.

I grew up with a deep skepticism of financial institutions, especially the stock market. My father invests in gold and silver and keeps it tucked away for the inevitable day when the stock market crashes and there’s a run on the banks. He thinks the founding of the Fed was the beginning of the end of this country. Big government and big corporations in cahoots to swindle the little guy. I used to think he was crazy – like, legitimately insane – but the older I get the more sense it seems to make. (I, literally, never thought I would say those words).

The unfortunate thing about my dad’s strategy is that he has no money saved for old age. Well, that’s a lie…he has like $10k saved…but that would last him all of 6 months if he was lucky (and very frugal, which he is). He also doesn’t have health insurance (never has as far as I can tell) and he’s ready to stop working his tail off. He just turned 73 and he’s getting tired. He hates to admit it, but he’s beginning to realize the limits of the human body.

Retirement. What a strange concept. The truth of the matter is that neither of my parents will retire in the American Dream sense. They’ll retire in the sense that their bodies may no longer allow them to be gainfully employed sense. That’s the reality of the working class.

But me, well…I’m solidly middle class. I was making more as a recent graduate than my mom has made in her entire working life AND I didn’t have three mouths to feed. (I think it goes without saying that my mom is superhuman.) My first year out of college I focused on paying off student debt by living bare bones. The second year I started saving and felt pressured to start put something away for retirement. “The time is now, while you’re young!” they all say…about everything. I jumped on the bandwagon.

When asked by the Smith-Barney rep how aggressive I wanted my portfolio to be I told him I wanted to invest exclusively in socially responsible funds.  He laughed. “You won’t make any money in socially responsible funds.” Isn’t that kind of the problem?  We all want to get rich and we don’t care at whose expense? We quibbled and I stood my ground. I didn’t want my piddly sums to capitalize on exploitation in any form.

This was in 2008, right before the market crashed. The Smith Barney rep took it upon himself to willfully ignore me (he thought I would come around), so he kept my money in a money market account rather than investing. When the next year rolled around he played it off as though he’d done me a favor by not investing, which he inadvertently had. Nevertheless, my mind had not changed…I still wanted socially responsible funds. When I finally did some sleuthing I was abhorred to find that Johnson & Johnson was a bit part of my portfolio. Egad. Johnson & Johnson is not the company I think of when I think socially responsible.

Fast forward to now. I’ve moved my retirement accounts around, but I have absolutely no idea what they’re invested in and it kind of kills me. Even though I can’t even feign financial influence, it matters to me if I’m investing in a world I want to live in. Transparency and accountability matter to me more than returns. Until recently, there really hasn’t been a financial marketplace for people like me. Thanks to the millennials, however, there is greater demand and we can begin aligning our investments with our conscience.

Action 1. Put your money in local credit unions. When my husband and I joined bank accounts it was right in the thick of the economic collapse (2009 to be exact). We both had our money in big banks prior to that but became wary with the bailouts and the golden parachutes. The blatant disregard for people losing their livelihoods from those at the top drove us to divest from Chase and put our money in a local credit union. That’s where we are to this day.

Action 2. This one has taken me some time to do. The DAPL saga has pushed me over the edge. I can no longer invest in companies that invest in social and environmental tragedies. Goodbye Chase and Bank of America – I am happy to find a more humble creditor.

Action 3.  I just recently resumed the search for socially conscious retirement funds and was excited to find Aspiration – a company that appears to share my values. It’s a very new company, so they are still only selectively accepting new customers. I’m on the “invite” list. If it doesn’t work out, I might try to figure out what kind of socially conscious funds Vanguard supports.

Action 4. Micro-financing is on my list of goals for 2017. I’d like to figure out how to sprinkle my money around and invest in things that matter all over the world. First stop: Kiva. In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8 I’ll loan some money to women entrepreneurs in other countries. I won’t see any ROI, but that’s not really the point anyway…for me it’s about creating a better world for future generations.

First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Action 1. Check the relative neutrality of your current news sources using sites like allsides.com.

Action 2. Diversify your news sources.

Action 3. Subscribe to your local newspaper.

Action 4. Support ($) other news sources you think are doing a good job of dispensing honest (enough) information.

I’m addicted to the news cycle. I’m feeding off of the insanity of it. I scroll through it over my morning coffee and my bedtime tea. I’ve tried to limit my intake, but I am captivated by the shock and awe of it. I want to make sense of it, but there’s no sense to be made. I find no nourishment, but it’s thrilling and terrifying and I can’t get enough.

Before the election I didn’t devour news nearly this much. In fact, I tried to avoid news online since it oftentimes led me down an existential black hole. The thing with the internet is that you can chase any thought to infinity…even dark thoughts. When I’m consuming internet news I inevitably come across articles that hint at evil, corruption, or injustice. These stories pique my curiosity because they don’t mirror what I experience or see in my day to day. These stories introduce discord and I consequently feel compelled to chase that discord to some resolution. Suffice it to say that resolution remains ever elusive because the more I read, the less I feel I know about the world and the people in it. It seems that the problems we face are immense and formidable and bottomless. As far as my psyche goes, bad news leaves the door ajar, just enough space for anger and sadness to creep in and disrupt my thinking.

I don’t want to give you the sense that it’s all bad. It can be good, honestly, to be uncomfortable. In fact, I think it’s essential nowadays to embrace discomfort. Feeling unsettled spurs reflection, connection, action, and ultimately change. The challenge is consuming just enough to be informed and to be activated, but not so much that the hopelessness paralyzes you. Right now I feel paralyzed.

So what’s different now? My news sources came in at a trickle before the election. I went online with a particular question or topic in mind that I could explore from many angles. In my quest I would usually be drawn to personal stories and deeper analyses. News was really just a portal to examine the grey area behind any headline. I didn’t let the news just pour in unfiltered…I searched for it. But that all changed about a month ago, when I feared that I had lost touch with common sense. When the words “fake news” and “alternative facts” became a common refrain. When people started hurling insults at those they disagreed with as if it was their moral imperative. I felt out of touch.

In order to remedy that, I went on the hunt for truth and hope. Spoiler alert: I didn’t find truth…I did, however, find a little hope (more on that later). I started devouring news from across the spectrum. In addition to moderate, more value neutral sources (think: Christian Science Monitor, C-Span, Federal News Radio, Reuters, BBC), I perused sources that occasionally lean (think: New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, The Telegraph, The American Conservative, The Washington Examiner), I sought out knee jerk journalism that plays to its core audiences (think: Fox, Huffington Post, National Review, Mother Jones), and even introduced some of the echo chambers where you can flirt with conspiracies and unite with the angry “us” to rally against the ignorant “them” (think: The Free Thought Project, Info Wars). I needed, for whatever reason, to be bombarded by the divergent thinking that seems to be ever-present right now. I needed to see for myself what people were saying to themselves and each other about our country.

It’s been a month of endless consumption, and I’m tired. I know I can’t sustain it. I know I need to get back to a more normal rhythm and routine. I need to get back to connecting and creating rather than consuming. Consuming leaves me feeling hollow and alone. The news is not a surrogate for community.

I’m of a generation that’s accustomed to getting things for free – especially digital things – but last fall my husband and I decided that the time had come to subscribe to our local newspaper. I want someone telling stories about my place and I have to be willing to pay for those stories. Alongside stories of violence and injustice there are stories of people investing in our community. Even as I cringe at the typos, our local newspaper has been a refuge. The texture of the paper grounds me, the words inside attempt reason (which is really all I can hope for), I learn new things about my community, and there are CARTOONS, CROSSWORDS, AND COUPONS! Need I say more?

Put down your cell phone. Breathe. It will all be okay. Just take it one step at a time.

Action 1. Check the neutrality of your current news sources on a site like allsides.com. After reading from an array of news sources over the past month my gut says that this is a pretty good site that I can use to calibrate my own barometer. It’s also a good way to peruse headlines from different angles. Refer to Snopes, Politifact, and Fact Check to dig a little deeper on particular claims or headlines (although these fact-checking sites can sometimes have their own bias!).

Action 2. Diversify your news sources. It’s good to see what news other people are exposed to and how they might be processing things. It’s important to look at the world through different lenses. Just try to stay away from the comments section (especially right before bed)…the comments are universally ugly and depressing. After over-diversifying my news sources, I’m going to start pruning back to keep myself sane.

Action 3. Keep local journalists in business by subscribing to your local newspaper.  I want people paying attention at the local level because I think it’s important to have news from multiple scales. Subscribing to our local paper has been a very worthwhile investment. For about $5 per month we get a paper two days a week (on Wednesday and Sunday).

Action 4. Support other news sources you think are doing a good job of dispensing honest (enough) information. I think the press is a bulwark of our democracy. If we want a free and independent press, the people have to be willing to pay for it. We donate money to NPR and BBC. After a too long hiatus, I will be re-upping my subscription to the Christian Science Monitor. I have also made donations to Wikimedia and All Sides.