Conscious Investments

[aclokay]

So I'm sure some of you invest money in stock markets. and I was wondering if you ever considered and alternative to that. 

For the 5 years I've been working as a programmer, I've invested around 90% in the stock market having no idea what those stocks actually are.
I've realised that I'm probably putting money in place I have no interest in, but just because those indexes are considered to be profitable, I've done so.

By doing this, I see that my hope for a sustainable profit is fuelling the companies that hope for HUGE profits. My reasoning was that keeping the money in the bank is a bad financial decision so I have to put it somewhere where it can be profitable and give me financial stability in the future.

I think opening a business can do something similar, so I wondered about taking those 90% I throw on index funds, and throw them all in whatever endeavour I might come across. I don't know if I'm at the point where I would feel comfortable doing so. I have accumulated enough money to last me for a couple of years but I just wouldn't know what to do with those. 

And as Leo said "All dualities must collapse" this duality of stock market, and self can collapse as well. So perhaps investing in the markets that I believe would benefit me and society at large would be better than pursuing a business that I don't have genuine interest in, other than financial stability.

What do you guys think?

[w4read]

@aclokay Funny that you wrote this, because I've been thinking about this a lot too. I'm studying financial economics and am currently striving to find a way to use my knowledge in a way that is not just about making profits, but in fact contributing to value creation. As of today, I have two ideas in mind.

A year ago I came across something called "green finance" which is basically about making "green" portfolios, consisting of green and innovative businesses, and marketing them in a way that make more people invest in these portfolios/businesses. I think this is contributing to making more people interested in and aware of green shares, which will make the profits of these shares go up. If you don't have time to analyze all the individual businesses or want someone to invest consciously for you, I think these fonds could be nice. 

If you have some money that you are not afraid to lose, you could also consider to invest them in start ups that have some sort of concious vision that match your values. Then you are not an entrepreneur yourself, but you are helping other entrepreneurs with funding from scratch, which for many of those would mean the difference between existence and non-existence. If you have some specific talent or vision that you would like to contribute with to the firm, you will probably be in a good position in actually having some influence on how these businesses are run.

It seems like this last thing was something you could find interesting, and if you get to know the right people and join some entrepreneurial work shops, you could probably find people like this.

[Yarco]

I'm not a financial planner, do your own research. But in my opinion, the younger you are, the more risk you can afford to take.

If you're in your teens, 20s, or 30s, then you can stand to take bigger risks like starting your own business or other risky choices. I would say once you're either in your 40s OR you have a kid (whatever comes first), then you have to start playing things a bit safe with your money.

You probably want to keep an emergency fund of at least 6 months to a year where you could survive if you lost all income.

It's also not all-or-nothing. You could leave most of your money in indexes, and put something like 10% into startup businesses, crypto, or other things. 

[Elton]

@aclokay Have you ever heard of mutual funds, it safer than the stock market, I invested in these through a financial advisor. 

Systematic investment plan, you invest 15 % of your income there every month and after a few years if the markets go up you will make a lot of money. The growth is slow but steady over a period of 10 years.

Of-course investing all your eggs in one basket can be very rewarding; like Mr. Napoleon Hill said in his book think and grow rich, when you go to war burn all your ships of retreat and you are sure to win the war.

I guess that was something Leo did too with actualized.