Episode Summary:
In this week’s episode, we discuss values-based spending and values-based investing. And we bring on our friend Erica to make the discussion more interesting! We start off with a discussion on values-based spending, what it is, why it matters, and how to implement it. We then dig into values-based investing. We remind people how investing actually works, and then talk through various values-based investing thoughts and considerations. You might be surprised by what you learn in this episode, we were!
Episode Notes:
We are joined by one of Maggie’s best childhood and adult friends, Erica. Erica has been curious about values-based investing for years, and when she posed several questions to Maggie we thought it’d be fun to bring her on this podcast for the discussion.
What is values-based spending?
- You may see a lot of different definitions of this out there.
- To us, values-based spending or values-based budgeting is the idea of spending your money in alignment with your values and priorities. To do this, you need to be clear about what matters to you. And if everything matters, then nothing matters.
- Prioritize what matters to you and what you care about. Set up your budget and spending practices in those areas, and reduce your spending in other areas.
Our thoughts on values-based spending:
- It’s important! Everyone should do it. We do it.
- This is why tracking your expenses matters. If you don’t know where your money is going, you can’t put in the work to align it to your values. Do you value travel? Great, then it’s OK to spend more money on travel. Do you value fast food and random crap from Target? Cool, well then quit spending money on fast food and random crap from Target.
- Budgeting vs. Tracking Expenses episode reminder. Tie values into either approach.
What is values-based investing?
- We define values-based investing as making financial investment choices based on your personal values and views, vs. just a company’s performance. This could mean looking at a company’s product, actions, or leaders and seeing if they align with your values.
- There are company’s you believe have a positive impact on the world, from our culture to society to the environment. There could be company’s you think are indifferent and company’s who are doing damage.
- Values could include your faith, health practices (e.g. we’re vegan and don’t want to support the meat industry), climate change, environmental policies, human rights, diversity/inclusion, etc.
- Values-based investing could mean screening more things in, screening things out, or both.
- Most banks or trading firms will offer recommendation or lenses on this that you can research more:
- Betterment markets some of their funds as “With our new and improved Socially Responsible Investing Portfolios, you don’t have to choose between investing in companies whose values align with yours and your performance goals.”
- Fidelity will let me screen ETFs for various factors, and one is a socially responsible screen. There are 101 ETFs across multiple categories I can drill-down into.
- Other funds include: NACP, SHE, and WOMN. When we researched these funds and looked at the individual stocks within them, they look very similar to top S&P 500 firms. Judge for yourself, but we think you’ll be surprised to see what’s in these funds and the how low the bar is set of what makes it in to the fund.
- Vanguard ESG US Stock ETF (ESGV): screened for certain environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria.
- Invesco Solar ETF (TAN): First Solar (FSLR) and SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG), TAN is a way to invest in the solar energy trend without going all-in on a single company
Our thoughts on values-based spending:
- It’s important to understand how investing actually works, before you start to tie your values to it. A company exists to create value for its shareholders.
- Everything in life is a trade-off, and so is values-based investing. You’re trading off profit vs. you feeling good about something. That’s a personal decision.
- Diversification is always an important consideration. It’s not an OR thing, it’s an AND thing. Perhaps I want to start moving more of my money into the company’s who’s mission and beliefs I align with. I buy so few individual stocks this is less applicable at times. I want to invest my money in a location that’s going to perform decently and not ruin the world. It’s all about continuums and scales (e.g. I won’t do this as it’s so far against my values, but I will invest my money in broad ETFs that contain facebook and amazon stock).
- Read the fine print. Some things will be marketed to you as if they are socially responsible, but dig into the details. See what companies are in the ETFs and read what their requirements are and how they hold companies within accountable.
Top 3 Takeaways:
- When you buy shares of stocks it doesn’t go to that company directly, it goes to the other investors.
- Erica’s dad might be right, altruism and investing don’t always mix. You can invest and make money, and also be altruistic. They may be separate activities, but you can do both things.
- You need to understand that if you are receiving a message about something from a company (for profit or non-profit), someone is marketing to you. You need to be skeptical and do your own research.
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