Posts Tagged ‘IRA’

I started thinking about this a lot over a year ago. The economy had gone south and I, like most people, lost upwards of 40% of my retirement funds. While I’m a long way from retirement, I don’t like handing back 40% of my money. I started thinking about in whom and in what am I investing.

I couldn’t answer my own question. The nature of mutual funds blinds us from where our money is going. The investment gurus tell us that it’s a blended fund to minimize losses and optimize gains — lower risk. So why is it I lost 40%? The most recent market downturn was obviously a result of improper lending. Lending to people who had no business borrowing what they were borrowing. The execs making the decisions on who to lend to don’t care — they’re millionaires who receive millions when they get fired for poor company performance. I wish I could do shitty, careless work, get fired and, as a result, win the lottery.

I quickly realized I was part of the problem. These companies survive on investments like the ones I make through my 401k and Roth IRAs. Unwittingly, I was, and still am, investing in many of the corporations I despise like the automobile industry, the oil industry and shady financial institutions.

Not long after realizing my mistakes, I talked to my financial advisor and long-time friend. Of course, he was a little hesitant about moving my money to socially-responsible mutual funds — funds that choose companies based on their track records for making socially- and environmentally-responsible decisions in their business activities. Apparently, this is a fairly new area for my old friend because it was clear from our conversation that he didn’t have anything readily available from which I could choose to re-invest. Apparently, he still doesn’t have anything over a year later because my money is still sitting in the same places more than a year after telling him I would like to pursue these types of investments. This also makes clear that no one else is asking about these sorts of mutual funds.

As a bike commuter, one of the main reasons I ride is because I’m eternally sick of the automobile and oil companies feeding us lies about how they are working in our best interests. Remember the Saturn commercials which said, “I get tired of these pundits telling us that we don’t make cars that Americans want. Saturn makes cars Americans want.” They went out of business shortly thereafter.

Many of the companies we are investing in do not have mine, yours or our country’s best interest at heart. They are simply trying to make a buck whatever the cost to our health, livelihood and future.

Please, talk to your financial advisors, human resource personell and legislators. Let’s start demanding a higher standard and better visibility to what we are spending our money. Only by making large corporations accountable can we ensure that we maintain and grow the ideals we hold personally.