More than profits: Selected resources in socially responsible investing

When you sign try for the pension plan stock funds at my workplace, and others like it, you get a bit of investment counseling, which goes something like this: if you want to make move money from your investment, you have to be comfortable in taking higher risks. You might concentrate heavily or? high-tech, or biotech, or emerging stock markets. These gambles sometimes make a great deal of money, although there is also the risk of losing a great deal of your initial investment if the firms or countries go sour. If you are uncomfortable with high risks, you end up investing in a wide array of long-standing domestic "blue chip" stocks. You are reasonably assured in this case of two things: moderate growth in funds and moderate risk in which you didn't make as much money ns you could have. Over the last two decades or so, we have seen more people concerned with not only how much money their investments were making but also with how their pension plans mane the money for their retirement. Was it made through liquor, gu,ls, tobacco, environmental pollution, strike breaking? Such prospective pensioners have trouble sleeping, knowing that while their personal money for the future might be safe, their souls in the future might be imperiled because they individually profited from what some would call misguided or detrimental company policies and products. Our of these concerns arose mutual funds committed to socially responsible investing. This guest column by Joseph LaRose describes this movement and its critics, offering a guide for both our customers and ourselves.