Aligning your investments with your faith and morals.
A growing trend in the investment industry is when investors are not only looking at their investment returns, but also investing dollars and assets to places that match things that are important to them.
Let’s take a step back for a second. . when you invest into stocks or stock mutual funds, you are an owner of that company, or the companies in the stock mutual funds. Although it’s small ownerships, you are, in fact, an owner of that company. So if you own stock in Tesla, you are an owner along with Elon Musk. Now, he has much more ownership than you, but you are an owner of the company. The same is true for a stock mutual fund. If you own a fund, that owns stocks, every company in that mutual fund is a company that you are a part owner. So if you’re mutual fund owns Coca-Cola, you are an owner of Coke. If the mutual fund owns stock in a casino, you’re an owner of the casino.
So the trend that is becoming more and more popular is to invest in companies that match your interests, your beliefs, your values, morals, your faith. Faith-Based Investing is investing in companies that match your faith, your beliefs, your values. Now there are a number of names for this, faith-based investing, morally matching investing, and biblical responsible investing; all have filters or screens that match a biblical perspective.
So for example, you may invest in a certain stock mutual fund for your retirement or it may be in your 401k plan at work that invests in a pharmaceutical company that is soon to get FDA approval of a new pill. . if that new pill gets approval, the pill will be a big money-maker for the company. But if that pill was a newer version of the “abortion pill”, would you want to profit from abortions?
So we can eliminate companies that profit from certain industries that go against and violate God’s biblical principles. Wall Street calls theses companies “sin stocks”. .companies that profit from abortion, pornography, gambling, alcohol, and tobacco.
So faith based investing is a way to invest to avoid these companies and not profit from the “sin stocks” and invest in companies that are striving to further God’s kingdom, striving to build up God’s kingdom, rather than tear it down. The goal is to invest in companies that strive to honor God, work to make the world a better place, to better match biblical principles.
Bottom line is, imagine if you only had two choices to invest for your retirement; you can invest in McDonald’s, a big global company in the fast food industry, or Chick-fil-a. One cares about God’s kingdom, the other doesn’t care about God’s kingdom.
Another example is you can invest in mutual funds like Blackrock, Vanguard, or Fidelity, who don’t care about God’s kingdom, or you can invest in mutual fund companies like Eventide, Crossmark, or Praxis, who care about God’s kingdom.
You have a choice. Faith based investing gives you a choice.
Most investors say to me, “well, I don’t know if I own bad companies, or invest in companies that violate God’s word.” We can help you. We are offering you a FREE X-ray, an evaluation of your IRAs, 401ks, etc.
