What are the top 3 changes you can make with your money to be better for the world and people?
Almost all of us want to make responsible choices in life and we are now, more than ever, aware of the global challenges we face in the world. Environmental issues, human rights, and climate change.
Many of us are also starting to care more about how our behaviours affect the planet and its people. In our homes, we are swapping the products we buy for those that are more environmentally friendly, as we consider our impact on recycling, waste, and pollution.
What about our money?
Here are 3 simple things you could consider doing and Magenta can help you to get organised with, to do ‘good’ with your money:
Demand a green pension
You might not think you have any investments, but if you have a pension, you do. And it’s not necessarily green.
Trillions of pounds of our pension savings are invested in companies each year. Nest, the UK’s biggest pension fund, began divesting from fossil fuels in July this year. But many pension funds still back the oil and gas industry.
If you’re concerned that your pension could be damaging the environment, do what you can to take control of it. Ask about ethical investment options – because investing your pension money in green investments could have 117 x the same positive environmental impact of limiting yourself to one return flight a year (Nordea, 2018). That’s a big change and impact!
If you’re unsure how to do this, or find your pension can’t offer you this option, then get in touch and we can help.
Switch to an ‘ethical’ bank account
There are numerous choices out there, with banks who place ethics for people and the planet first and look to invest and use companies with good ethical standards.
You can check out the Which? Guide for best and worst here: https://www.which.co.uk/money/banking/bank-accounts/best-bank-accounts/best-and-worst-banks-a3q5d8c6dj7y
Make ethical investments
There are now thousands of ‘ethical’ investment funds on in the market.
It really is no longer a choice between doing good and positive returns. It is possible to do both – achieving your financial targets and doing good along the way.
Investing ethically is 27 x times more powerful in reducing CO2, than anything we can do personally, like eating less meat, shorter showers, less consumption.
However, ‘ethical’ investing can be confusing and difficult to establish alone, as there are many choices and different risks to consider. At least seven different labels are used to describe ethical investment funds and greenwashing is prevalent in the sector.
To help, last year we wrote our ‘Green Guide to Investing’ to help navigate this ethical world of investing – which you can download here
If investing in this way is of interest to you or you’d like to discuss anything we’ve covered in this blog, then please don’t hesitate to:
Call or email on 01656 760670 or hello@magentafp.com
Book a meeting online here
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