2020 has been a tough year. The west coast and Colorado were scorched with record breaking fires, the gulf and east coast battered by a record breaking hurricane season, our cities were full of protests and boarded up for a tense election, and a global pandemic has killed over a million people and shut down the entire world.
Our 2020 resolution
We’ve always been conscious of how we live and what we support, but 2020 inspired us to take it to the next level. This year we are making a long term commitment to align 100% of money with our values so that we know we’re doing all we can to make our planet better.
We will use our money to support:
- Clean energy and environmental sustainability
- Clean food and sustainable, regenerative agriculture practices
- Improved equality through the support of the marginalized and under represented
- Local & sustainable livelihoods and communities
We want to eventually know that all of the money we earn, everything we buy, the credit cards we use to buy things, the accounts that hold our money and the things we invest in are all aligned with our values and creating a future with clean food, water, and air, responsible and inclusive companies, and thriving local communities.
Voting is important, but we only do it every other year. We make and spend money every month, and how we use our money can have a huge impact. The companies we work for, buy from, and invest in take our money and use it to influence our laws through lobbying, our government through campaign donations, and public opinion through advertising. If less people spend money buying gas and gas consuming products, the fossil fuel industry has less money to shape public opinion and their influence is reduced.
Where we are today
About 1/3 of our money is at Wells Fargo, so our first step will be closing our WF accounts and moving that money to a better bank. We love the Wells Fargos branch service, but their constant shady business practices and funding of the fossil fuel industry are things we don’t want to support. It’s a bit sad because we’ve been their customers for almost 30 years, but it’s time to move on. We'll look for a more local bank like Beneficial State Bank that invests our money into local community building projects instead of fossil fuels.
After that we'll look for mission driven financial products for short and long term investments. We’ve already have some money in CNote and some socially responsible ETFs, but we'll expand the percentage of our portfolio invested in SRI & ESG funds and individual stocks. We'll also take our money beyond ETFs by investigating other investment alternatives like Nia Impact Capital and the How Women Invest venture capital fund.
With each step, we will share our research and experiences to hopefully help others and build a community of mindful money managers. If you’re ready to take the impact of your money to the next level, join us on our journey.