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.