LIVING
well
PUTTING YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR
HEART
IS
A new book helps those of us without a lot of financial knowledge put our money where it will do us – and the world at large — some good, writes MYKE BARTLETT. Making money and being ethical don’t always seem to go together. Even if we don’t buy into the 80s maxim that Greed Is Good (popularised by the lead character of the 1987 film Wall Street), there’s a sense that making moral compromises is often necessary where money is concerned. Many of us worry that we simply can’t afford to be as ethical we might like. A new book argues that investing in ethical businesses might be easier than you think — with benefits for the environment, your sense of wellbeing and, crucially, your bank balance! Nicole Haddow, author of The Ethical Investor, says she had never thought about being an investor. “There was always a mental barrier,” Nicole says. “I had an idea in my head that it was going to cost me thousands just to get started.” A bit of research revealed that there is now a range of sophisticated micro 18
investing apps that allow beginners to start small at minimal financial risk. “I started buying shares by apps and that helped me understand what I could afford, what was appropriate, how the market was performing, and also gave me the confidence to go further. So the barrier to entry is not what it used to be.” The Ethical Investor is Nicole’s second book, following on from Smashed Avocado, which offered a guide to rentvesting — where first homebuyers purchase an investment property in an affordable area, but continue to rent a home in a more desirable location. It was a practice that had worked very well for Nicole, until an extraordinary year threw everything into chaos. “At the start of 2020, we had terrible bushfires and a pandemic started. My tenant moved out of my property, and I was in a situation where I needed to sell. So I did sell the property. The
challenge for me was, what do I do next? I wanted to be in a position where my money wasn’t all in one investment.” Most of us are already investors, of course, even if we haven’t given it much thought. Our superannuation funds are investing our money in stock they hope will pay off enough to allow for a comfortable retirement, but Nicole says she had never investigated where that money was actually being invested. “I hadn’t been giving a great deal of thought to my superannuation,” Nicole says. “And when I did call my super fund and ask where my money was invested, they couldn't give me the information that I needed.” When she looked into ethical alternatives, it quickly became apparent that many ethical funds were happy to be far more transparent about what they would do with her
