Green Investing: More Than Being Socially Responsible: A Practical Guide for Busy Investors

In this book, Patrick Costello, a practicing Certified Financial Planner(tm), shows busy investors how to implement a socially responsible and sustainable investment (SRI) strategy. Without spending an inordinate amount of time or becoming an investing expert, everyday investors can align their investing process with their personal ethics and values while earning a competitive return. Additionally, Patrick introduces the concept of "Green" investing, which is fundamentally about investor empowerment. Green investing, with socially responsible and sustainable investing at its core, goes beyond investment selection and encompasses the totality of the individual's investing experience. It is critical that aspiring SRI investors learn to navigate today's complex investing environment, avoiding pitfalls and leveraging the resources offered by the professional SRI community. In addition, a basic knowledge of the principles of portfolio construction is essential to any investor's success in achieving her goals. Only after an investor learns these lessons will she be fully prepared to build a diversified, risk-adjusted, socially responsible and sustainable portfolio. The financial services industry is rife with conflicts of interest, marketing hype and enormous amounts of media "noise". When investing through Wall Street financial service firms or national banks, investors may be unwittingly limiting themselves to proprietary trading programs and/or a small handful of mutual fund families that do not offer much in the way of SRI options. Investment professionals calling themselves "Financial Advisors" may in fact be nothing more than salesmen, eager to promote investment products of dubious value that pay high commissions. A Green investor is armed with the knowledge required to sift through financial service propaganda and media noise. She has the skills to select a financial professional who puts her interests ahead of his own, and enough of a working knowledge of portfolio construction to guard against taking inappropriate investment risks. "Green Investing: More Than Being Socially Responsible" delivers the following: 1) Clear definitions of what Socially Responsible (SRI), Sustainable, and Impact investing are all about, 2) Current objective performance information demonstrating that there is no need for SRI investors to make a financial sacrifice, 3) Practical step-by-step guidelines investors can use to add Socially Responsible and Sustainable investing strategies to their portfolios, 4) Concise explanations of the differences and similarities among popular investment vehicles such as mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and separate accounts, 5) An overview of the science behind the construction of a diversified, risk-adjusted investment portfolio, 5) An analysis of the influence of Wall Street firms and large national banks on the investing environment, 6) A discussion of the impact of the financial media on the decision-making process of the long-term investor, and 7) Detailed descriptions of the professional training and standards of care offered by financial professionals with titles such as Financial Advisor, Investment Consultant, Certified Financial Planner(tm). To get right to the heart of the biggest misunderstanding among ordinary investors: The most current objective data show that an investor does not have to sacrifice performance in order to add an SRI element to his or her investment strategy.