Do you have ethical qualms about your 401K or mutual fund investments?

[Stevendsmith]

Or do you just try not to think about it -- like I do.

[arcane1]

1. I do the same thing n/t

if I think about it too much, I'd probably have to re-think the job I have, too

[texastoast]

2. Yes, I do

But so far, the Blue Fund is not offered. I will bring that up with my HR people.


http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/16/funds/blue_fund/index.htm

[Lost-in-FL]

10. Blue funds in my company??

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

To give you an idea of the institution I work for in Florida: (1) The first Black person was hired in 1970, (2) and belongs to one of the mayor Church's in the US. Why I still work there? Cause the other options are worse.

[texastoast]

26. I hear you

But I will bring it up. I'm already an outcast at this very "conservative" place where I work.

Another option, if you have a rollover from a previous 401K that you didn't roll into your current 401K, you have more control over that one in choosing the investments.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

3. Ummmm, why would I have ethical qualms about this issue? nt

[Thtwudbeme]

6. Because your money might be invested in socially

irresponsible companies.

Therefore, you are part of the problem. :)

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

9. I guess I'm just not that pristine

Saving for the future involves money and money is rarely, if ever, a clean venture.:shrug:

[Nimrod2005]

18. lol...

[Quakerfriend]

4. Yes, of course, I do. I just told my husband last week that I

really feel that 401Ks will go the way of pensions in this country. We used to look at the 401K as our 'nest egg' but, now I see it as something that could vaporize very quickly.

I no longer look to see how my 401K is distributed.

[LSK]

5. why would 401k's go the way of pensions??

Its like having money in a bank account in your name?

Who administers your 401k?

[eleny]

8. If the 401k options go bust, a person could lose it all

I guess my point is that 401k plans that are invested in stocks and bonds can go poof like pension plans that companies walk away from. Either way, you lose.

[LSK]

11. my 401k is in mutual funds offered by TRowePrice

I dont see how they can just "dissappear"? :shrug:

[bbinacan]

13. Excellent point

Every stock in every mutual fund would have to go out of business. If that happens, we lost WWIII and money won't matter anyway.

[eleny]

17. I'll tell you what happened to us

My husband has a 401k with our state where he was employed. In 2000, a few months before he retired, he rolled almost every dollar of his 401k into his state pension plan. Two months later, the mutual funds (stocks and bonds) invested via the 401k plummeted. They lost 1/2 their value. Luckily, he only left a smidgen of money invested in the 401k. It still has not recovered all that was lost.

So, 401k mutual funds can pretty much disappear if they're invested in stocks or bonds. That's if you think losing half your investment is similar to "disappearing".

Edit: Woops! I just checked with hubby. The 401k lost 2/3 of its value in stocks and bonds. I thought it was 1/2. And it happened over the span of one month.

[Lost-in-FL]

7. I do.

Fortunately, my 401K has within its Funds options the PAX WORLD FUNDS which advocates socially responsible investing. http://www.paxworld.com/02_philosophy.htm

That makes me feel a little better. I wish there was something I could do instead of putting money on the Market. I'll rather do Real State but don't have the funds for the big starting costs.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. I don't even look at all that crap...

Our broker sends about 35 pages of stuff every month about what he's been buying and selling, and my copy goes straight into the trash can. All I look at is net gain and net loss, and I don't even pay that much attention to that. I figure it's all going to collapse and go away before I want to take any money out anyway, so why bother even thinking about it. Somewhat fatalistic, I guess.

[eleny]

14. I guess it's the same with any bank account that draws interest

[GrumpyGreg]

15. Not me !

[Midlodemocrat]

16. I try to make sure that the funds/accounts we have are things

in which we believe. Sometimes, not so easy.

[Squatch]

19. Not at all.

My investment objective is simply capital growth, and I have built my portfolio to maximize that growth (with the commensurate amount of risk) as much as possible.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

20. Not One Iota.

[mcscajun]

21. I pay close attention to the few stocks I own directly in my IRA, but

as to the mutual funds in them, No.

I have in the last few years divested myself of stocks like Wal-Mart, Home Depot and such when I became more politically active again, and also aware of the policies and behaviors of those companies. I don't have limitless options and energy to get into fine detail as to the contents of the mutual funds in my IRA. I don't apologize for it, either.

It's a big job to disconnect from anything and everything that's under the control of RW bastards, but I take what actions I can, when I can. I don't shop at or otherwise support companies directly that I know to be in conflict with my politics, but I'm no purist. I'm too generally disorganized to be one. Hell, I haven't filed my 2005 taxes yet!

[trixie]

22. Well us in the government sector

Have lovely pensions and a 403b. Government people make sure they don't have to worry about stuff like that.

[davsand]

23. I am with Calvert--a socially responsible mutual fund.

I LOVE these guys, and they are well rated. Learn about them here:

http://www.calvert.com/sri.html

I had an interesting conversation with an investment counselor who works exclusively with socially responsible funds. He made the comment that socially responsible investing makes a lot of sense for long haul investments because the funds typically perform better. According to him the companies that are socially responsible pay fewer fines and penalties--thus they are more profitable.

I never bothered to look into it, but it makes sense if you think about it...

Happy investing!


Laura

[yewberry]

24. ...My 401K or mutual fund investments...?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

*snif* Heh...I'm doing a year of national service, and my stipend doesn't cover the rent.

Heh.
:wandersoffgiggling:

[CK_John]

25. Small companies and many school districts put 401s at risk

Because some small companies offer a very limited selection and some only to invest in the company itself. School districts fall prey to the local school board favorite booster and memebers end up paying very high fees that limit investment gains.