Climate-Friendly Investments

Most traditional retirement investments are funding the very fossil fuel companies and projects that you're on the streets protesting! It can be daunting to figure out how to take control of what your investments are supporting, especially if finance isn't your field and/or your employers, past and present, are limiting your options.

Here are the steps I took to divest from my retirement investments that were just matching the overall market or including fossil fuel companies in their portfolio:

1. I researched options and found a local investment advisor, Green Alpha, whose investment criteria match my values for both environmental and social equity aspects. Because our future economy must support these values, it is also a better investment strategy to focus on the next economy! From Green Alpha's website: "Real risks related to climate change, resource degradation and scarcity, and widening inequality are rapidly materializing. Innovative companies addressing systemic risks are leading long-term economic growth. Investing in those companies is our best opportunity to preserve and grow clients’ capital."

2. I worked with them to choose an appropriate brokerage and opened investment accounts for them to manage.

3. I filled out the paperwork to withdraw my retirement investments from the traditional company's accounts and send the money to the new accounts.

If you're just getting started and have only a little bit of money to invest, Green Alpha also advises funds that can be purchased with low initial investment: NXTE and AXSKX. Read more about the options on their website. Please note: I am not a financial advisor and do not receive any monetary kickbacks from the company for giving them as an example. I'm sure there are other good options but after much searching this is the best one I found.

This is a process that can take a while and require perseverence! Stick with it!

P.S. Bitcoin is a disaster from a climate perspective. From the Biden administration fact sheet: "From 2018 to 2022, annualized electricity usage from global crypto-assets grew rapidly, with estimates of electricity usage doubling to quadrupling. As of August 2022, published estimates of the total global electricity usage for crypto-assets are between 120 and 240 billion kilowatt-hours per year, a range that exceeds the total annual electricity usage of many individual countries, such as Argentina or Australia. This is equivalent to 0.4% to 0.9% of annual global electricity usage, and is comparable to the annual electricity usage of all conventional data centers in the world. "

E-Bikes

E-bikes take the pain out of the hills and make commuting and mountain biking more accessible, without polluting!

We've been having a great time exploring the mountain biking trails near our house on our new E-bikes.

E-biking is a fun activity to do with visiting family members.

Climate-Friendly Banking

All of the big banks, including Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, fund fossil fuel projects, so giving them the profits from your mortgage and other loans, checking accounts, and savings accounts funds the very projects you're on the street demonstrating against!

Here's how I switched:

1. I checked out the options and chose the local credit union that gave us a mortgage on our off-grid solar house with the same easy process and great interest rate they offer for on-grid houses. I was also impressed that they won an award for having the best mortgage process. I asked them about their investments and they assured me they fund renewable energy and energy efficiency, but no fossil fuel projects (not a given since there are plenty of wells being drilled in my state).

2. I opened a checking account/debit card with them.

3. For credit cards, I chose the option that my investment advisor recommended as the one that is less objectionable than the others from a climate perspective: Capital One.

4. I changed the direct deposit of my paycheck and expense reimbursements with my employer to the new checking account.

5. I combed through my autopayment transactions for the past year, and transferred all the payment information to the new checking account.

6. I left a small amount of money in the old account to cover anything I might have missed, and after a year, transferred what was left to the new account and closed the old one.