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Originally Posted by Lauxa  I think the number one thing holding me back right now from having more money is that I hate investing.
First let me point out that it's not that I don't have money. Right out of college I set specific monetary goals for myself that make me a millionaire by age 45 or so (I am 30 now... almost...  ) and I am on track with that plan. But the plan requires me to double my net worth every 5 years, which either means investing at about 15% ROI or dramatically increasing my income or a combination of the two.
I was in mutual funds and index funds for a while but I didn't like it because of ethical considerations. The money is just spread out over a wide swath of companies and who is to say that they line up with my values? I don't want to invest in Coca-Cola, Walmart, Phizor, DOW Chemicals, etc. I don't know how to find companies to invest in that are providing genuine value to the world, companies that I can be proud to support. Even the "ethical" mutual funds seem a bit dodgy to me. Most of the businesses that inspire and excite me are private ventures without public stock listings.
I have some investment in gold and guns, but this feels like hoarding and not being in the flow of the universe. I am much better at hoarding, but I feel I need to change this if I want to attract more wealth. I looked into real estate investing for a while. It looks like there are 2 ways to profit: buy a house for below market value by taking advantage of someone who really needs to sell and/or own rental properties and be a hard-a** who evicts anyone who can't pay. This doesn't sound like much fun to me...
One thing I could "invest" in would be some employees, like childcare and house cleaning, to free up more of my time to work on growing my income. Somehow this doesn't feel like an investment as much as an expense, especially since I'm not bringing in much income from my business ventures right now. Anyone have opinions on this?
Any advice is welcome! |
Like one of the other posters suggested, creating your own business is definitely a good way to "invest". You can run your business according to your own philosophical and ideological views, while creating value for yourself, jobs for others, etc.
I'm on the other extreme, since I'm passionate about and fascinated by financial markets. On one hand, I agree with your concern about investing in companies that you find to be incompatible with your beliefs. The good news is that there are thousands of companies all around the world to choose from, and its doubtful that *all* of them you'd find objectionable.
As far as investing in stocks or similar equities, there's a ton of mutual funds that are geared to people just like you. Whether you want to invest according to environmental, religious, or other principles there's probably a mutual fund with a similar focus. Here's a website to start with, but if you Google "socially responsible investing" or a similar term you'll find a ton of resources:
The Social Investment Forum: Promoting socially responsible investing, community investing and shareholder advocacy
Of course you can approach the financial market the way I do--that it's a way for me to make money. I approach it almost like a game, trying to find investments that offer the potential for profits without regard to the underlying companies. Now, granted, what companies do and how they do it are part of the consideration but I don't personalize my investment to the degree that you do. I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart, but were I to buy their stock I wouldn't feel like I'm "investing" in their company--I would do it if I thought it was a good opportunity for me to make money.
And with the money I make I'm free to use it to further my own beliefs and philanthropic goals. I'm a big dog lover and I give a lot of time and money to charities that find adoptive homes for abandoned and neglected dogs. The good that I'm able to do directly in this area that is very important to me more than outweighs any sort of misgivings I may have about how Wal-Mart conducts their business.
Again, that's just me but I'm a big believer in the power of economic marketplaces. Using Wal-Mart as an example again, I may not like certain things about them as a company but its clear that many people shop there. In other words, the marketplace has decided that whatever value Wal-Mart can provide outweighs whatever liabilities they have as a company. Now, if Wal-Mart was doing something that I considered extremely important to advocate against I would--for example, if they were killing puppies I'd be all over them. Since they're not, however, I view the money I can make my investing in them (or other companies) to be resources that I can use to advance the "greater good" specific to things that are very important to me.
As a disclaimer, I'm just using Wal Mart as an example here and don't really have an opinion one way or the other about the investment potential of WMT stock.