All in Socially Conscious Series
As it is Earth Month, I'm sharing some of my tried and true sustainable swaps. My journey to sustainability continues to this day and the biggest thing I've learned is that it is a journey, one that never ends, as we challenge ourselves to do better each day, learn more, and teach others. Sustainability comes in so many forms that we all have to do the best we can, given our resources. I've also learned that when you are kind to the planet, you also become kinder to the wallet.
Who profits from war? In most cases, the majority of us do. Public pension and retirement funds are often invested directly or indirectly in companies that manufacture weapons and provide military contracts. In this blog post, learn how to see if your investments are funding wars and if you are profiting from them.
Earlier this week, we celebrate National Coming Out Day or NCOD. National Coming Out Day is an annual LGBT awareness day that celebrates and supports individuals who publicly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. Many use this day as a way to share their coming out stories, support others who may keep their identity a secret, or celebrate those who are now sharing their gender identities and sexual orientation. Your identity has an obvious impact on your relationships, but it can also affect other aspects of your lives, like your job or career, and your finances.
So whether you are part of the LGBTQ+ community, or are an ally, how can we build a more LGBT-friendly investment portfolio?
As individuals, we all have the power to make a change. Today, money makes the world go round. That is an honest reality that we all must face, which means we need to be more conscious about what we buy, where we park our money, what we invest in, and how we go about changing a system that relies heavily on consumption and growth.
Since it’s Earth Month, we’ve been running a #SaveMoneySaveThePlanet Challenge with our email subscribers. Sign-up here. We can’t let this month pass by without talking about fashion, more specifically how fast fashion affects our wallets and the planet and how we must all transition towards the concept of slow fashion.
You might have heard of fast fashion — clothing that can be both cheap in costs and in quality. But have you heard about slow fashion? Slow fashion focuses on the opposite, curating clothing that is more sustainable in its production and material, while having a newfound appreciation for consumer transparency, ethics, and local, artisan craft.
Clothing comes at a cost and while I usually never spend regular retail prices on anything, all these sales add up quickly. It’s also interesting to see how my purchasing power has changed over the years.
When I was a kid, my mom used to wake me up early on Saturdays to bring me to the local flea market or to scout nearby yard sales. I would pick at miscellaneous toys and gadgets, while my parents browsed for clothes and homeware. When we would go to thrift stores, I would quickly do a pass through of the aisles and claim that I didn’t find anything interesting. I didn’t find it particularly interesting at the time, but now, as a twenty-something year old, I realized how much fun and affordable it was. For some thrifting is new, and for others, it was an activity out of necessity. Some people prefer to thrift to find unique clothing pieces, while others do it for sustainability reasons. Regardless of your reason, here are some tips that can help jumpstart your thrifting journey:
“...the currency of the South was the slave”
This month’s book is “The Color of Money - Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap” by Mehrsa Baradaran. It covers the history of Black banking and the role of racism in the economic independence of the Black community.
Today, on every socioeconomic level, Blacks have significantly less wealth than whites. The book explains how the racial wealth gap was created that continues to affect millions of families in the United States. There were also many laws and policies like the GI Bill, the Homestead Act and the FHA that denied the Black community the opportunity to advance and economically prosper.
“Invest in the world that you want to live in.”
How can we invest and pursue financial independence with people, planet and profit in mind? It’s time we start investing in the world that we live in, but aligning our investments with our values. In this post, we provide options for alternative investments as well as some ways we can improve our current investment portfolio using various resources.
As part of our Socially Conscious FI Series, today we are exploring minority owned banks.
I read this phrase somewhere in my research: “organized money is power”.
We currently live in a money-based system and I honestly don’t foresee that changing in the near future. So it is up to us to shift and distribute money equally so that “power” can be distributed equitably across all communities.
It’s important to know that these kinds of banks exist especially as we challenge the status quo for a more equitable chance at wealth creation and growth for all.
“It turns out you can give your money to a project positively impacting the world with the goal of earning a financial return.
Can you grow your money while investing in positive change for people and the planet? I believe that we can and this book The Do Gooder’s Guide to Investing by Adrian Reif provides a roadmap on how we can do all that.
The word “investing” can sometimes get a bad rap because it’s associated with Wall Street, but it’s absolutely possible to invest in affordable housing, renewable energy and local communities and still grow your money. The Do-Gooder’s Guide to Investing provides a comprehensive list of these investing options. Even if you are not ready to invest yet in these organizations, I highly recommend reviewing and learning more about the organizations that Adrian lists as it will give you some hope about the future.
“You will be in debt for the rest of your life.”
That was my welcome into the veterinary profession. Starting as early as when I began my undergraduate studies, if I spoke with a veterinarian, the assertion that I would be in debt for the rest of my life would inevitably come up. Going less waste is what allowed me to break the cycle of mindless consumerism and believe in a future where we can be debt free. I’m so excited to continue to align my actions with my beliefs and can’t wait to see what we can accomplish once we have financial independence.
I wanted to share with you this episode of Journey to Launch where I chat with Jamila Souffrant about the relationship between financial independence and sustainable living. I’m very excited to share this. Listen to it on your favorite podcasting platform or click here.
I don't want to protect the environment. I want to create a world where the environment doesn't need protecting.
Back in June I launched a financial independence blog, not because I wanted to, but because I needed a way to crowdsource the information I haven't been able to find anywhere else on the internet. What is it that I couldn't find on the vast internet, where all the answers to so many of our questions are just a Google search away? Well, no search engine was able to lead me to any websites discussing how people can achieve FI while pursuing a triple bottom line, which equally values people, planet, and profit (3p). I think it can be done, but it's not as straight forward as setting up monthly automatic deposits into low-cost broad based index funds or investing in rental properties and later living off the 4% withdrawal rule, which seems to be the mainstream approach to FI currently.
“Right now, your prosperity is provided by a plentiful supply of clean air, water, food, and energy. Although some of you like to take all the credit for this, it’s really my ecosystem that does all the hard work: the plants, animals, oceans, air currents, and especially the atmosphere. Without these services, you would lose your ability to create the food and products that form your current prosperity.” - Earth, Mr. Money Mustache
My two passions of sustainable living and sustainable investing are merging as I dive deeper into making my money work for me in a way that aligns with my personal values.
The point of FI is social enterprise. Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Perhaps, I am being idealistic with thinking that the point of financial independence is social enterprise, but what is the point of putting yourself in a position of financial security, of having time to do what you want? Is the freedom that we all crave all for the sake of building our own islands, separate from everyone else? I would think such a life to be boring and unfulfilled.
Here’s the kicker when it comes to the waste we produce: this is also money.
We may not realize it right away, but each item we buy not only costs us money, but costs us time. We have to start thinking about the consequences of our consumption. It is actually our consumption that is depleting our natural resources. There is an excess demand for extra stuff. This results in more being made and manufactured. The outcome is not only waste byproducts, but also wasted materials. The lifestyle of product is so short nowadays that it essentially goes from the store to our hands to the trash in a matter of days or even minutes.
I pretty much expected to be in debt for the rest of my life.
I graduated in 2011 from a private liberal arts college with a degree in Theatre and over $25,000 in debt. In addition to that, jobs were scarce when I graduated and I was unable to secure one directly out of college. I bounced around from job to job, industry to industry, city to city, making just enough to cover my bills and even save a little before settling in Buffalo in the fall of 2013.
