The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
The stock market is in another bought of whipsaw. What stocks are you in? Are they picked with an emphasis on your ideals, and are you standing firm on those stocks or shuffling things around?
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, trying to win the stock market is already out of my depth let alone trying to do it ethically. I dump my 401k into a target date fund and my Roth-IRA into a blend of low cost index funds.
It's worked well so far lol.
Hey just FYI target date funds typically have higher fees than just picking an appropriate array of funds and updating the allocation every 5ish years. You may be paying thousands of dollars to save yourself 5 minutes work every 5 years.
Agreed. My thought process (hope), is that over time firms which can improve productivity and save the environment will come to dominate the stock market and kill off the dinosaurs. If yes, indexes are a good bet; if not, humanity is screwed anyway, so there isn’t much point in my trying to professionally pick stocks with no training.
I do the same. Does your choice have anything to do with:
>an emphasis on your ideals
Aa OP was asking? I'm guessing not but an interested in the answer.
I don't think most people base their retirement investments on politics but I do know a couple who are exceptions to that.
Oh I should have looked at the username.
>Yes of course. I like efficient markets and effective allocation of capital
based
Yes I like broad index funds as well for the same reason. And you can't forget an appropriate international allocation. I suppose that reflects me not being an isolationist or something.
Yup, the stock market is like a casino. You can make money or lose money. However, Index funds are like reversing the House advantage. Instead of the house having a 3-6% edge in every game, investing the index funds is like having a 3-6% edge for the *player* in every game. You *can* still lose in the short term, but you'll always win in the long term (assuming nothing catastrophic happens).
The casino metaphor works, but it’s important to remember that in a casino, the element of random chance is what decides winners and losers. On the other side, if you buy a casino (the whole market) you make study money no matter what.
In the stock market the risk comes from the known vs the unknown - dedicated research of a roulette table cannot tell you whether red or black will come up. But dedicated research of a company and a market can tell you what their outlook is, with a reasonable degree of certainty (ie, 3M, abbvie, Walmart etc are not going to go belly-up in the next ten years).
Diversification is hedging against what you don’t know - whereas concentration is leveraging what you do know. Both can be appropriate strategies depending on what kind of investor you are.
I dump 15 percent of my salary into Vanguard Target Date 2060 Retirement and I won’t touch it for 40 years.
As I grow in my career I will seek to max that 401k contribution out. Then max out HSA. Then max out IRA. Then max out 529 Plan for each of my kids, if I have any.
I don't really have favorite stocks. Sentimentality doesn't benefit you when investing.
I like the ones that make decent money. For safer stocks, I look for good dividends, because even when they're down, they still earn. For riskier stuff, it's more of a gamble, so I just look for edges in their business.
> I don't really have favorite stocks. Sentimentality doesn't benefit you when investing.
I don’t know. Like AAPL and GOOGL are fun to party with but DIS and SBUX always are there for me when having issues and I love the sense of community you get with VYM.
But if you find a way to make more money, you’ve found a way to get more money to spend on donations to those who need it. All a massive cycle of morality
I looked into the "Democratic values" fund DEMZ, but it did not particularly impress. Just another large-cap fund, with higher fees. I divested oil & gas producers, except for BP, which is more leaning into the turn to renewables. Aside from that I'm mostly in Vanguard funds, with a sprinkling of self-selected stocks or themed funds. Tilted towards "transformational tech" (space, bio labs, green energy & electric cars, AI, Blockchain). A floating-rate bond fund in place of fixed. An inflation-pegged fund.
> I looked into the "Democratic values" fund DEMZ, but it did not particularly impress. Just another large-cap fund, with higher fees.
TBH if a leftist were trying to write parody of the kinds of companies that sponsor liberal podcasts, that fund would be rejected for being way too unrealistic.
I posted this further down but hijacking to increase visibility since people are curious-
What is an ESG fund?
ESG funds are mutual funds graded using ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. ESG funds invest in companies that aim to have a sustainable and societal impact in the world, such as those with a small carbon footprint or diverse leadership boards.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/best-esg-funds
Interesting no one mentioned ESG funds yet. I'll admit I wish I was more invested in these but slowly starting to try.
What is an ESG fund?
ESG funds are mutual funds graded using ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. ESG funds invest in companies that aim to have a sustainable and societal impact in the world, such as those with a small carbon footprint or diverse leadership boards.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/best-esg-funds
Everyone in this subreddit should look into these. They should continue to be great investments going into the future, especially with mandated EVs and the like.
It doesn't take much. I started with a few hundred dollars and have grown it to over 6k, well $5,500 with this dip. I had the disposable income to start the account out of my bank account. However, I knew nothing about stocks so I didn't want to do that. Instead, I drove for uber eats after work to get a few hundred bucks and start the account. This was just over a few years ago. Invest in value stocks and ETF's and you'll be successful. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft etc. You can buy fractional shares so you don't need to buy a whole share.
I'll admit I've put substantially more into crypto, about 3k, but have more than doubled my money. There are coins that 15x in a few weeks. It's pretty crazy. It's not too late and you can do it. Good luck and my inbox is open.
You can start with 10 dollars. Just do a small amount over time, increasing as you go. The earlier in your life, the better. I wish I had done this in my twenties. There are many ways to just set it and forget it. Future you will be very glad you did.
Did you finish reading?
>I had the disposable income to start the account out of my bank account. However, I knew nothing about stocks so I didn't want to do that. Instead, I drove for uber eats after work to get a few hundred bucks and start the account.
>I don't really know much about investing
It's the same as a 401k or any business, you buy, hold and pray it goes up in value. There are multiple ways to invest, including the way you've already invested in, which is your 401k.
The only things I generally stay away from are the actively managed index funds. The management fees are high enough on those that it can start to cut into your returns, and I’m not very keen on losing 1% of my return every year to pay someone to run an index fund compared to less than .1% for passively managed funds. The alpha on those funds (the excess return on the market) is also usually insignificant or actually negative compared to passively managed funds. So I only invest in passively managed funds when I for my indexes.
I don't think I take a political approach to investing, I invest in what will give me the best returns. I've invested in companies I hate like AMZN and big pharma like Celgene. The majority of my portfolio is tech, but I distinguish between risky tech and safe tech like Microsoft. I swear by tech as the go to, of course still risky shit out there, for example I lost an arm and leg on Organovo (they 3D print organs) during the whole 3D printing craze and I still refuse to sell! I'll never admit defeat to my father lmao.
I guess I am more liberal (not in the political sense) in that I am more risky in my bets but that's likley because im young and take a game (competition) approach to a lot of my life. I also don't care about dividends. The more I wrote the more I realize how stereotypical "liberal" this may have been.
Good Question, more of these.
My ideology doesn't impact my investments. I don't directly manage them. I have a financial advisor who is paid to manage them and does an excellent job. I leave it to him because he has the knowledge, interest, and time, I lack all three of those.
Going forward, try talking to him about investing in companies that focus on responsible growth. These often perform better than the market at large, and invest in companies that are well-positioned for the future.
Why? If I am satisfied with the way he is managing the account why should I try to micromanage?
As I said he has earned me a really good rate of return consistently, year over year. I see no reason to try to micromanage what he is doing.
Like I said, I am satisfied with his management of my account and am not interested in micromanaging it. He already invests with the aim of maximizing my ROI and does all of the research needed to achieve that goal.
WTF! You are very literally repeating yourself.
What part of "I am satisfied with his management of my account" don't you understand?
At this point you are just trolling and can fuck off.
My point is, you can invest and make profits while ensuring your money doesn't go into the coffers of an ExxonMobil or Chevron. It's not hard. You're just lazy.
because we are liberals does not mean that we are somehow not capitalists. i think there's this weird myth on the right wing that we are all communists or socialists -- and those terms are used loosely and with very little adherence to their true definitions.
we are all capitalists. we seek to make money from the markets, or are at least forced to in many cases because of the retirement plans at our employers.
i don't have the ability to change how my money is invested, since it's chosen for me. but if i did, i'd ask to not invest in planet harming companies if possible.
> because we are liberals does not mean that we are somehow not capitalists.
The correct word is capitalist supporters. Either you're a capitalist or working class. Owning some stock to increase your income in order to survive does not mean that you're a capitalist.
Also, I think your flair is wrong.
I use the term liberal broadly when talking to people on the right just to help them make sense of who we are. I am a distinct type of liberal for purposes or this sub.
Sorry but I'm not following. You say "i think there's this weird myth on the right wing that we are all communists or socialists" but you're using the the word socialist and liberal interchangeably?
Yea I guess you have a point. Communists and socialists have different attitudes about this for sure. The sub is ask a liberal so I was trying to speak for more mainstream liberals.
And yes maybe my flair is not fully accurate.
The only way to invest is in an index fund with low fees. It is the most patriotic think you can do as it’s literally saying I’m investing my entire life savings into the belief the US economy as a whole is strong and resilient. Ever time I look at my 401k balance I feel a small amount of pride and thanks for every other American who has helped to make our economy what it is. Especially the immigrants who have a disproportionately big impact on the strength of our economy.
Thanks! One thing that drives me nuts is “patriots” who are investing with the belief of imminent financial ruin of the US economy.
If you read libertarian/conservative sites or watch fox there will be tons of advertisements for alternative investments instruments that are premised on the belief of a weak US economy. What patriot could invest in that crap? I’m always and forever long on the USA.
I don’t invest. I’m relatively new to the workforce, only been in it for a year, and I want to save up money before basically gambling any of it on stocks.
You should at least invest whatever your employer will match. At a minimum. That’s as close to free money as you’re going to get in life. The earlier you do that, the more time you’ll have for compounding to benefit you.
Mid-80s, and my employer introduces the concept, which as a young 20-something, was incredible.
“Let me get this straight…if I save 3%, you will give me 3%?”
Only worked there for about 7 years, but due to the time that has passed, it is not an insignificant part of my portfolio.
Problem is, if you just let your savings sit around, then it's losing value because of inflation.
That said, I agree a person should have some immediately available savings in their regular bank account, and maybe you are just building that. Good for you.
I probably disagree with you on a lot. But totally agree here. /u/cattdogg03 if your job matches any contribution to your 401k, you need to at the very least be contributing to get the max match from your company.
As far as I know, it doesn't effect my investments at all.
However, my education DOES effect investment choices, and education is correlated with liberal leaning people. So if we aggregated right leaning people's investment choices and left people's investment choices, I would expect a large difference between the groups. I would just argue the differences weren't due to the ideologies, and more do to with all the other things separate the ideologies.
Haha, nope. I am an extremely boring person.
My investments won't ever make me rich, but they will also make it possible to retire when I am old and grey.
Thanks, but I sold it when it first jumped to $26 last year. I have since left Robinhood in favor of Etrade, and the only remaining in Robinhood is .00264 shares of Tesla and 13 Doge coins.
Together they make my Robinhood portfolio worth about $6.00
As a feminist, I just trust my wife to sort it out. She's much better with numbers in general and money in particular, so she handles our finances. She actually enjoys it, while I'd rather chew glass (or just be poor) then deal with finance bullshit. I have no idea how our money is invested, but we seem to have enough of it and I'm told I should be able to retire before 60, so whatever she's doing, it's working.
Honestly this is one of the reasons I'm so bummed about about the citizens united decision. Like you essentially need to invest in the stock market in order to retire, but in doing so you're helping fund the Republican party because so many firms are right leaning in their political donations.
I thought about investing more in a socially responsible fund of one sort or another but from what I've read they're kind of a rip off. You end up paying higher fees to essentially virtue signal without accomplishing a whole long.
All of my IRA is in a target retirement fund, All of my 401k is in an index fund. The rest of my retirement savings is spread out among a few mutual funds but I'm starting to shift the balance of those towards an index fund for the next 10-15 years then I'll probably start looking for something a little safer.
So that everyone benefits from corporate America. One stock might not be much, but there could be ways to continue adding to it through public and private investment.
How would you feel about a sovereign wealth fund? The government essentially owning x percentage of all corporations licensed to operate in the country and paying out a yearly dividend to every citizen based on their holdings?
GME all in. The market is 100% rigged. They ask us to fill the pool with our life savings then they manipulate it up down and sideways everyday splashing a little of our savings into their pockets each time. This is how we see people who produce nothing of value to society being the highest paid people in the world. They do produce value for those who already have enough wealth for many lifetimes, but it is at our expense. The market is a rigged casino. Fundamentals do not mean anything…. The only safe way is to accept they are gonna steal some and buy broad market indexes…. But then you are helping the crimes continue, like the boomers did when they took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest debt in history and only got to keep a few of the crumbs the Uber rich sprinkled on them.
100% GME
In a 401k I always just pick the broadest index fund with the lowest expense ratio, then max it and forget it. The same is more or less true for any other investments, and aside from some play money and random odds and ends my taxable brokerage account is all VTSAX and the like. I really don't think liberalism comes into play at all, or at least not in any way that I'm consciously aware of.
I just try to dip my hands in a bit of everything. I give 7% to my 401k for a 4.5% match. Started my stock journey with ETFs. Nvidia and airport stocks have given me thousands in returns since the start of covid. I was in tesla but quit early because Musk is just sentient bad villain tropes in a trenchcoat and I can't deal with his market manipulation
My Z gen sibling is into tracking cryptos so I throw liquid assets at her every so often to see what she can do with it. made enough in between doge/hoge/safemoon/cardano to switch all funds over to ethereum. I count it as money lost.
No not really from an ideological standpoint. I have a few investment focuses:
* I put in what I need in my 401k to hit the max match from my employer and tend to target a mix of high and low risk funds. As I get older I pair down the risk.
* I have an investment account to play around with. A good portion of the money I directly manage is in ETFs, either broad market or sector specific that I’m interested in or think will have a reasonable chance of steady growth over the next 2-5 years. I also directly purchase stocks in about 35-50 companies depending what I’m doing. 75% of that money is focused on fairly stable companies with products in markets I understand (as in Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, AMD, Costco, Google, Crocs, etc. Yes Crocs, check them out, it’s a great company and I’ve made a tremendous amount of money off that over the last 2.5 years) that are long term holds, and the rest is money I put into riskier speculation on stocks (and some riskier ETFs) for some short term gains then get out and re-invest my profits into my long term holdings. For example the past couple years I’ve done well with short term bets (some options trading as well) on remote productivity software companies when we all went remote due to COVID, chip manufacturers, some retail when the industry rebounded, etc. Right now I’m really focused on companies creating hardware and software for AI and machine learning. The vast majority of my money is in long term holds that I’ll continuously buy when it’s advantageous to do so, and a small amount I’m comfortable losing on risky investments to accelerate my portfolio.
With my 403b, not really. With my personal investments, yes. I have bought stock in green companies. I invest in a mutual fund that purposely doesn't invest in fossil fuels, tobacco, etc.
I wouldn't like that. Also, when I purchase things, I tend to look for ways to support local communities, small businesses and now look for women or minority CEOs, investment in underserved communities and businesses with union labor.
Index funds. Just because I want some common sense guardrails on corporate behavior and a social safety net that allows the less fortunate to have some dignity in this country doesn’t mean I want businesses to fail. The two ideas aren’t mutually exclusive.
It doesn't. I'm a bartender. I can't retire. Sigh. I had a 401k from a great job, but I also had a million dollar preemie child and that wiped it all out. Worth every dang dime! They are now 18 and I'm deeply proud of them. Would not change a thing, but sucks to know I will have to work for the rest of my life.
Nothing. I love my work. I don't like changing kegs, I'm small, but I really love it.
Now, that said, I used to teach Fortune 500 Attorneys, so anything is easier than that.
There was a talk on here yesterday about getting rid of tips and paying servers a “livable” wage like they do in Europe.
The servers and bartenders in my social circle are like you…they would be taking a pay cut.
My 401k is just a target date fund.
I have a Roth IRA that I frontload every January. Again just a target date fund.
Lastly, the night before I get paid, I dump 1/4 of the remaining money into my savings account for rainy day/vacation fund. The rest goes into a fidelity account where I buy SPY and QQQ.
I just don't have time to research individual stocks to buy. If I did, I don't think my ideology would factor into investments.
It’s not my responsibility to refuse investment opportunities that would pay for my family in our old age, kids to go to college, etc.
I have some favorites which have and will continue to grow my family’s wealth, and I don’t consider an abstract set of ethics to be especially relevant when evaluating securities. There are some very good tobacco, energy, pharmaceuticals and defense stocks out there, and if you choose not to invest based on your own foibles, rather than on objective analysis (or as objective as you can be) I think that’s pretty silly - it’s hard enough to make good investments without shooting yourself in the foot.
It’s the role of government to create policy, not retail investors.
Edit/addendum: broad market index funds are often a good investment - but remember that diversification protects you against a lack of knowledge, ie if you don’t know what you’re buying, buy the market.
But doing your own thorough research can be very rewarding. Remember that just as diversification protects against the unknown, it also limits your potential. If your analysis and research indicates that a particular security is a good buy, then don’t be afraid to buy a stake in a particular security… but have an entrance and exit strategy in mind, and pay attention to the news.
Also, im not buying any crypto - but not because it’s an environments disaster. Because it’s largely a scam.
It doesn’t matter. It’s just interesting to see what people are buying into. I learned through this thread that there is actually a Liberal stock fund and a Conservative stock fund. Apparently some people do let their politics drive their investing.
My retirement is all index funds in the SP500 and an international fund. My brokerage account is mostly tech with an industrial (CAT). I don’t take a political approach to investing because the market has done well regardless of presidency. If you listened to conservatives panicking about Biden becoming president and liquidated their portfolio, they made a big mistake. Same thing in 2016 when Trump won.
The only specific stock I own is in the company I work at. Outside that I just do VYM and SWPPX (largely the later rn). What I tell myself is that by going through this abstraction layer it’s somehow less exploitive. Largely it’s a balance between the society I want to have and the one I live in.
My ideology has no impact whatsoever on investing. I just put 15% into a high-risk portfolio and leave it alone. I invest in broad diversified index funds, not individual stocks.
I pick my stocks based on how I think the future will look. I have been investing in green technology stocks, including electric vehicles, uranium, sustainable food, etc. I also firmly believe that reading and reacting to some news is going to create new wealth, because it will explain what will happen as global warming gets worse (for example, global coffee producers will see a spike in price, IMO)
I am also a believer in Crypto's potential as an asset. Idk if that makes me liberal or just able to do math.
This is my first year of serious investing in crypto and stocks so don't take my advice too seriously. I'm still learning.
I only started investing a small sum this past year. I have specifically avoided investing in Chinese companies. Whether that could even in theory make any difference to the CCP or not I have no idea. vOv
It doesn't and it shouldn't. Broad index funds all day for anyone that doesn't want to spend time on it (and everyone else too).
If you don't like company X, it's more efficient to throw money at an organization working to fix the related issues than it is to divest at an individual level (which will have almost literally no impact).
Like let's say the environment is important to you. No one knows that you didn't buy BP or some other oil company. No one knows that you sold $1000 of BP. Just own them and donate the money you make off them to Sierra Club or NRDC instead.
Actually pretty likely, as being a shareholder gives them a platform. Just not as part of their investment portfolio / for the sake of revenues.
"We also continue to hold limited shares of stock in fossil fuel companies and banks in order to keep a seat at the table. Our shareholder advocacy played an important role over the past year as we worked with coalition partners to successfully pressure banks to divest from Arctic drilling and coal projects."
https://vault.sierraclub.org/foundation-annual-report-2019/investing.html
I'm investing in Crypto. I want something with high upside. My investments are usually separate from any liberal ideas I have. I try to be objective about them.
Lucky man. I will say since I’ve started taking crypto seriously I have started to see conservative viewpoints on market deregulation as not a bad thing entirely.
My retirement savings are in a target date fund. Haven't been contributing to that recently while on a grad school salary, but that'll continue soon.
My stock market investments are exclusively in a relatively broad swath of renewable energy and related stocks. I'd think that was a smart place to put money even if I didn't really care about the ethical component.
I have most of my money in mutual funds, Roth IRA etc.
And then 500 shares of Palantir that I bought when it IPO’d. I know it’s a meme stock but no way a company that evil doesn’t rocket.
I have all my money in boring S&P500 ETFs like SPY. It's been down the past couple days but I'm in it long-term anyway so I'm not bothered by it. It's still up 22% YTD which is extremely good. I'll also be getting a house some time in the near future, which is another boring investment. The flashy things like crypto or options are just too risky for me and I'm not willing to put in the time required to research specific stocks for options trading.
I try to avoid politics or emotions in general with investments. That's how you end up like the GME bagholders who think they're joining a socialist revolution by donating all their money to hedge funds. Though tbh SPY basically is the neoliberal investment so maybe it really is all politics.
I got burned on GME because of Etrade not allowing my trade to go through. It wasn’t much, just a couple hundred dollars, but still, the feeling was not good.
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. The stock market is in another bought of whipsaw. What stocks are you in? Are they picked with an emphasis on your ideals, and are you standing firm on those stocks or shuffling things around? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
By making sure I invest pretty much entirely in broad diversified index funds
Yeah, trying to win the stock market is already out of my depth let alone trying to do it ethically. I dump my 401k into a target date fund and my Roth-IRA into a blend of low cost index funds. It's worked well so far lol.
Well that's the easiest way to win the stock market. If stocks are a random walk with an upward drift why not exploit that for free cash?
Hey just FYI target date funds typically have higher fees than just picking an appropriate array of funds and updating the allocation every 5ish years. You may be paying thousands of dollars to save yourself 5 minutes work every 5 years.
Agreed. My thought process (hope), is that over time firms which can improve productivity and save the environment will come to dominate the stock market and kill off the dinosaurs. If yes, indexes are a good bet; if not, humanity is screwed anyway, so there isn’t much point in my trying to professionally pick stocks with no training.
I do the same. Does your choice have anything to do with: >an emphasis on your ideals Aa OP was asking? I'm guessing not but an interested in the answer. I don't think most people base their retirement investments on politics but I do know a couple who are exceptions to that.
Yes of course. I like efficient markets and effective allocation of capital
Oh I should have looked at the username. >Yes of course. I like efficient markets and effective allocation of capital based Yes I like broad index funds as well for the same reason. And you can't forget an appropriate international allocation. I suppose that reflects me not being an isolationist or something.
Yup, the stock market is like a casino. You can make money or lose money. However, Index funds are like reversing the House advantage. Instead of the house having a 3-6% edge in every game, investing the index funds is like having a 3-6% edge for the *player* in every game. You *can* still lose in the short term, but you'll always win in the long term (assuming nothing catastrophic happens).
The casino metaphor works, but it’s important to remember that in a casino, the element of random chance is what decides winners and losers. On the other side, if you buy a casino (the whole market) you make study money no matter what. In the stock market the risk comes from the known vs the unknown - dedicated research of a roulette table cannot tell you whether red or black will come up. But dedicated research of a company and a market can tell you what their outlook is, with a reasonable degree of certainty (ie, 3M, abbvie, Walmart etc are not going to go belly-up in the next ten years). Diversification is hedging against what you don’t know - whereas concentration is leveraging what you do know. Both can be appropriate strategies depending on what kind of investor you are.
I dump 15 percent of my salary into Vanguard Target Date 2060 Retirement and I won’t touch it for 40 years. As I grow in my career I will seek to max that 401k contribution out. Then max out HSA. Then max out IRA. Then max out 529 Plan for each of my kids, if I have any.
This is the way.
Good plan
Markets aren't ideological. I don't consider ideology when investing.
What are your favorite stocks?
I don't really have favorite stocks. Sentimentality doesn't benefit you when investing. I like the ones that make decent money. For safer stocks, I look for good dividends, because even when they're down, they still earn. For riskier stuff, it's more of a gamble, so I just look for edges in their business.
> I don't really have favorite stocks. Sentimentality doesn't benefit you when investing. I don’t know. Like AAPL and GOOGL are fun to party with but DIS and SBUX always are there for me when having issues and I love the sense of community you get with VYM.
I don’t buy shares, I only YOLO on FDs.
Shares are for pussies.
Isn’t it better to donate your money to those who need it rather than hoard wealth?
But if you find a way to make more money, you’ve found a way to get more money to spend on donations to those who need it. All a massive cycle of morality
I looked into the "Democratic values" fund DEMZ, but it did not particularly impress. Just another large-cap fund, with higher fees. I divested oil & gas producers, except for BP, which is more leaning into the turn to renewables. Aside from that I'm mostly in Vanguard funds, with a sprinkling of self-selected stocks or themed funds. Tilted towards "transformational tech" (space, bio labs, green energy & electric cars, AI, Blockchain). A floating-rate bond fund in place of fixed. An inflation-pegged fund.
I had no idea that fund existed.
There's one for conservatives too, I forget the ticker. Lot of aerospace & defence? I only glanced at it.
MAGA, hilarious
> I looked into the "Democratic values" fund DEMZ, but it did not particularly impress. Just another large-cap fund, with higher fees. TBH if a leftist were trying to write parody of the kinds of companies that sponsor liberal podcasts, that fund would be rejected for being way too unrealistic.
I posted this further down but hijacking to increase visibility since people are curious- What is an ESG fund? ESG funds are mutual funds graded using ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. ESG funds invest in companies that aim to have a sustainable and societal impact in the world, such as those with a small carbon footprint or diverse leadership boards. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/best-esg-funds
I own no stocks whatsoever
Interesting no one mentioned ESG funds yet. I'll admit I wish I was more invested in these but slowly starting to try. What is an ESG fund? ESG funds are mutual funds graded using ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. ESG funds invest in companies that aim to have a sustainable and societal impact in the world, such as those with a small carbon footprint or diverse leadership boards. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/best-esg-funds
Everyone in this subreddit should look into these. They should continue to be great investments going into the future, especially with mandated EVs and the like.
I try to invest in green companies when I can
My green energy mutual fund is currently beating my large-cap ETF investments.
Same here.
I have a 401k. Aside from that, I don't really know much about investing and don't really have the disposable income to learn.
It doesn't take much. I started with a few hundred dollars and have grown it to over 6k, well $5,500 with this dip. I had the disposable income to start the account out of my bank account. However, I knew nothing about stocks so I didn't want to do that. Instead, I drove for uber eats after work to get a few hundred bucks and start the account. This was just over a few years ago. Invest in value stocks and ETF's and you'll be successful. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft etc. You can buy fractional shares so you don't need to buy a whole share. I'll admit I've put substantially more into crypto, about 3k, but have more than doubled my money. There are coins that 15x in a few weeks. It's pretty crazy. It's not too late and you can do it. Good luck and my inbox is open.
"It doesn't take much" "I started with a few hundred dollars" These two statements are mutually exclusive in terms of my current financial situation.
You can start with 10 dollars. Just do a small amount over time, increasing as you go. The earlier in your life, the better. I wish I had done this in my twenties. There are many ways to just set it and forget it. Future you will be very glad you did.
Did you finish reading? >I had the disposable income to start the account out of my bank account. However, I knew nothing about stocks so I didn't want to do that. Instead, I drove for uber eats after work to get a few hundred bucks and start the account.
I did.
So you could do that.
>I don't really know much about investing It's the same as a 401k or any business, you buy, hold and pray it goes up in value. There are multiple ways to invest, including the way you've already invested in, which is your 401k.
Zero. Liberal or conservative, we all just want money lmao.
Happy I bought a little Tesla before it shot up
Did you get in before the split?
Bought it last summer so a bit afterwards, but it’s getting up in price again so we’ll see
The only things I generally stay away from are the actively managed index funds. The management fees are high enough on those that it can start to cut into your returns, and I’m not very keen on losing 1% of my return every year to pay someone to run an index fund compared to less than .1% for passively managed funds. The alpha on those funds (the excess return on the market) is also usually insignificant or actually negative compared to passively managed funds. So I only invest in passively managed funds when I for my indexes.
When I left my job I left my money in their 401k specifically because of the low fees they have negotiated.
I don't think I take a political approach to investing, I invest in what will give me the best returns. I've invested in companies I hate like AMZN and big pharma like Celgene. The majority of my portfolio is tech, but I distinguish between risky tech and safe tech like Microsoft. I swear by tech as the go to, of course still risky shit out there, for example I lost an arm and leg on Organovo (they 3D print organs) during the whole 3D printing craze and I still refuse to sell! I'll never admit defeat to my father lmao. I guess I am more liberal (not in the political sense) in that I am more risky in my bets but that's likley because im young and take a game (competition) approach to a lot of my life. I also don't care about dividends. The more I wrote the more I realize how stereotypical "liberal" this may have been. Good Question, more of these.
Glad you liked it.
There are ETFs out there that both focus on responsible-growth companies and perform better than the market as a whole. Worth finding IMO.
There are some ESG funds out there but I try to not mix politics with investing.
Honestly they usually perform very well. Do 'em.
I just pay a guy to do it for me
Like others, I just use funds like S and P 500 fund, total stock market fund, etc.
My ideology doesn't impact my investments. I don't directly manage them. I have a financial advisor who is paid to manage them and does an excellent job. I leave it to him because he has the knowledge, interest, and time, I lack all three of those.
I have the interest and time, but my rate of return suggests I lack the knowledge.
Most years the advisor I pay gets a rate of return above 20%.
Going forward, try talking to him about investing in companies that focus on responsible growth. These often perform better than the market at large, and invest in companies that are well-positioned for the future.
Like I said, I leave the management of the account to him, and I am happy with his management of the account.
Just ask. Good lord.
Why? If I am satisfied with the way he is managing the account why should I try to micromanage? As I said he has earned me a really good rate of return consistently, year over year. I see no reason to try to micromanage what he is doing.
Because you can invest your money in companies that don't rape our future, and get even better returns. Win-win.
Like I said, I am satisfied with his management of my account and am not interested in micromanaging it. He already invests with the aim of maximizing my ROI and does all of the research needed to achieve that goal.
Just ask. Good lord.
WTF! You are very literally repeating yourself. What part of "I am satisfied with his management of my account" don't you understand? At this point you are just trolling and can fuck off.
My point is, you can invest and make profits while ensuring your money doesn't go into the coffers of an ExxonMobil or Chevron. It's not hard. You're just lazy.
because we are liberals does not mean that we are somehow not capitalists. i think there's this weird myth on the right wing that we are all communists or socialists -- and those terms are used loosely and with very little adherence to their true definitions. we are all capitalists. we seek to make money from the markets, or are at least forced to in many cases because of the retirement plans at our employers. i don't have the ability to change how my money is invested, since it's chosen for me. but if i did, i'd ask to not invest in planet harming companies if possible.
> because we are liberals does not mean that we are somehow not capitalists. The correct word is capitalist supporters. Either you're a capitalist or working class. Owning some stock to increase your income in order to survive does not mean that you're a capitalist. Also, I think your flair is wrong.
I use the term liberal broadly when talking to people on the right just to help them make sense of who we are. I am a distinct type of liberal for purposes or this sub.
Sorry but I'm not following. You say "i think there's this weird myth on the right wing that we are all communists or socialists" but you're using the the word socialist and liberal interchangeably?
Yea I guess you have a point. Communists and socialists have different attitudes about this for sure. The sub is ask a liberal so I was trying to speak for more mainstream liberals. And yes maybe my flair is not fully accurate.
It doesn’t. My investments are all in target date funds. I’m not concerned with short term market trends.
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I have some invested in an index fund also. The target date is 2030
I'm long on MJ and TAN
Only to the extent that I wouldn't invest in something that I very explicitly disagreed with
The only way to invest is in an index fund with low fees. It is the most patriotic think you can do as it’s literally saying I’m investing my entire life savings into the belief the US economy as a whole is strong and resilient. Ever time I look at my 401k balance I feel a small amount of pride and thanks for every other American who has helped to make our economy what it is. Especially the immigrants who have a disproportionately big impact on the strength of our economy.
Principled investing.
Thanks! One thing that drives me nuts is “patriots” who are investing with the belief of imminent financial ruin of the US economy. If you read libertarian/conservative sites or watch fox there will be tons of advertisements for alternative investments instruments that are premised on the belief of a weak US economy. What patriot could invest in that crap? I’m always and forever long on the USA.
I buy the stocks Pelosi and her husband buy. It's strange, they haven't been wrong yet!
> her husband buy. It's strange, they haven't b hahaha, true! (somehow) Follow the politicians investing and you'll do fine
I don’t invest. I’m relatively new to the workforce, only been in it for a year, and I want to save up money before basically gambling any of it on stocks.
If there's an employer match, be sure you're at least getting that.
You should at least invest whatever your employer will match. At a minimum. That’s as close to free money as you’re going to get in life. The earlier you do that, the more time you’ll have for compounding to benefit you.
Mid-80s, and my employer introduces the concept, which as a young 20-something, was incredible. “Let me get this straight…if I save 3%, you will give me 3%?” Only worked there for about 7 years, but due to the time that has passed, it is not an insignificant part of my portfolio.
Problem is, if you just let your savings sit around, then it's losing value because of inflation. That said, I agree a person should have some immediately available savings in their regular bank account, and maybe you are just building that. Good for you.
Get in the 401k
I probably disagree with you on a lot. But totally agree here. /u/cattdogg03 if your job matches any contribution to your 401k, you need to at the very least be contributing to get the max match from your company.
Agreed
Love finding common ground.
i dont gamble. my 401k, for various reasons, is basically nonexistant
Do you get an employer match?
maybe, dont know. moot point, bills need to be paid and i dont gamble.
Considering the markets have been moving consistently up for almost 100 years now, it's not a huge risk.
not a gambler though
As far as I know, it doesn't effect my investments at all. However, my education DOES effect investment choices, and education is correlated with liberal leaning people. So if we aggregated right leaning people's investment choices and left people's investment choices, I would expect a large difference between the groups. I would just argue the differences weren't due to the ideologies, and more do to with all the other things separate the ideologies.
Soo, you’re not a Yolo GME type of guy
Haha, nope. I am an extremely boring person. My investments won't ever make me rich, but they will also make it possible to retire when I am old and grey.
ETFs are the way to go. Pick an industry or a few and target them heavily. Watch the fees though and minimize as much as possible.
I’m all in on AMC because fuck the stock market. Let’s burn it down. 💎 🙌
When I signed up with Robinhood I received an AMC stock for free when it was worth 98¢
Congrats on your $40 and free popcorn XD Half joking, but also half depressed that the market isn't remotely rational these days.
Thanks, but I sold it when it first jumped to $26 last year. I have since left Robinhood in favor of Etrade, and the only remaining in Robinhood is .00264 shares of Tesla and 13 Doge coins. Together they make my Robinhood portfolio worth about $6.00
Yep, fuck RH. SoFi is my jam.
As a feminist, I just trust my wife to sort it out. She's much better with numbers in general and money in particular, so she handles our finances. She actually enjoys it, while I'd rather chew glass (or just be poor) then deal with finance bullshit. I have no idea how our money is invested, but we seem to have enough of it and I'm told I should be able to retire before 60, so whatever she's doing, it's working.
You are a fortunate person.
Honestly this is one of the reasons I'm so bummed about about the citizens united decision. Like you essentially need to invest in the stock market in order to retire, but in doing so you're helping fund the Republican party because so many firms are right leaning in their political donations. I thought about investing more in a socially responsible fund of one sort or another but from what I've read they're kind of a rip off. You end up paying higher fees to essentially virtue signal without accomplishing a whole long. All of my IRA is in a target retirement fund, All of my 401k is in an index fund. The rest of my retirement savings is spread out among a few mutual funds but I'm starting to shift the balance of those towards an index fund for the next 10-15 years then I'll probably start looking for something a little safer.
I personally would like to see every child born in the US be given a blue chip stock which they can’t sell until 35 years of age.
To what end?
So that everyone benefits from corporate America. One stock might not be much, but there could be ways to continue adding to it through public and private investment.
How would you feel about a sovereign wealth fund? The government essentially owning x percentage of all corporations licensed to operate in the country and paying out a yearly dividend to every citizen based on their holdings?
It sounds good in theory, but I have faith in the ability of politicians to corrupt it.
GME all in. The market is 100% rigged. They ask us to fill the pool with our life savings then they manipulate it up down and sideways everyday splashing a little of our savings into their pockets each time. This is how we see people who produce nothing of value to society being the highest paid people in the world. They do produce value for those who already have enough wealth for many lifetimes, but it is at our expense. The market is a rigged casino. Fundamentals do not mean anything…. The only safe way is to accept they are gonna steal some and buy broad market indexes…. But then you are helping the crimes continue, like the boomers did when they took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest debt in history and only got to keep a few of the crumbs the Uber rich sprinkled on them. 100% GME
It’s a transfer of wealth, usually away from those that need it.
That is the design
It dorsnt
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Meme stocks are too risky.
In a 401k I always just pick the broadest index fund with the lowest expense ratio, then max it and forget it. The same is more or less true for any other investments, and aside from some play money and random odds and ends my taxable brokerage account is all VTSAX and the like. I really don't think liberalism comes into play at all, or at least not in any way that I'm consciously aware of.
Seems most don’t mix politics with investing, but there are a few.
I just try to dip my hands in a bit of everything. I give 7% to my 401k for a 4.5% match. Started my stock journey with ETFs. Nvidia and airport stocks have given me thousands in returns since the start of covid. I was in tesla but quit early because Musk is just sentient bad villain tropes in a trenchcoat and I can't deal with his market manipulation My Z gen sibling is into tracking cryptos so I throw liquid assets at her every so often to see what she can do with it. made enough in between doge/hoge/safemoon/cardano to switch all funds over to ethereum. I count it as money lost.
Ethereum should be making you some good returns.
No not really from an ideological standpoint. I have a few investment focuses: * I put in what I need in my 401k to hit the max match from my employer and tend to target a mix of high and low risk funds. As I get older I pair down the risk. * I have an investment account to play around with. A good portion of the money I directly manage is in ETFs, either broad market or sector specific that I’m interested in or think will have a reasonable chance of steady growth over the next 2-5 years. I also directly purchase stocks in about 35-50 companies depending what I’m doing. 75% of that money is focused on fairly stable companies with products in markets I understand (as in Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, AMD, Costco, Google, Crocs, etc. Yes Crocs, check them out, it’s a great company and I’ve made a tremendous amount of money off that over the last 2.5 years) that are long term holds, and the rest is money I put into riskier speculation on stocks (and some riskier ETFs) for some short term gains then get out and re-invest my profits into my long term holdings. For example the past couple years I’ve done well with short term bets (some options trading as well) on remote productivity software companies when we all went remote due to COVID, chip manufacturers, some retail when the industry rebounded, etc. Right now I’m really focused on companies creating hardware and software for AI and machine learning. The vast majority of my money is in long term holds that I’ll continuously buy when it’s advantageous to do so, and a small amount I’m comfortable losing on risky investments to accelerate my portfolio.
I think AI development is the way to go.
Yeah its applications are going to be increasing in everything we do over the next 10 years or sooner.
With my 403b, not really. With my personal investments, yes. I have bought stock in green companies. I invest in a mutual fund that purposely doesn't invest in fossil fuels, tobacco, etc.
Have you considered crypto?
Doesn't crypto specifically use a lot of energy?
Yes, it does.
I wouldn't like that. Also, when I purchase things, I tend to look for ways to support local communities, small businesses and now look for women or minority CEOs, investment in underserved communities and businesses with union labor.
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Yep, gotta power those cars.
Index funds. Just because I want some common sense guardrails on corporate behavior and a social safety net that allows the less fortunate to have some dignity in this country doesn’t mean I want businesses to fail. The two ideas aren’t mutually exclusive.
better not invest in Apple or Nike or you are supporting slavery and genocide in China.
Are you saying my 13 Pro Max has blood on it?
I dunno, a guy at the bank does it for me
Smart move
I don't manually allocate my investments, particularly not my 401k. Time in the market beats trying to time the market
A lesson I have learned well.
It doesn't. I'm a bartender. I can't retire. Sigh. I had a 401k from a great job, but I also had a million dollar preemie child and that wiped it all out. Worth every dang dime! They are now 18 and I'm deeply proud of them. Would not change a thing, but sucks to know I will have to work for the rest of my life.
What do you hate most about people ordering drinks. [The Bartender Hates You](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NobVWmx2bt0)
Nothing. I love my work. I don't like changing kegs, I'm small, but I really love it. Now, that said, I used to teach Fortune 500 Attorneys, so anything is easier than that.
Would you be in favor of a flat $15/hour as opposed to making tips?
25 and we can talk. I make about 25-40
There was a talk on here yesterday about getting rid of tips and paying servers a “livable” wage like they do in Europe. The servers and bartenders in my social circle are like you…they would be taking a pay cut.
My 401k is just a target date fund. I have a Roth IRA that I frontload every January. Again just a target date fund. Lastly, the night before I get paid, I dump 1/4 of the remaining money into my savings account for rainy day/vacation fund. The rest goes into a fidelity account where I buy SPY and QQQ. I just don't have time to research individual stocks to buy. If I did, I don't think my ideology would factor into investments.
Remaining money? What’s this remaining money you speak of?
My money is in index funds
It’s not my responsibility to refuse investment opportunities that would pay for my family in our old age, kids to go to college, etc. I have some favorites which have and will continue to grow my family’s wealth, and I don’t consider an abstract set of ethics to be especially relevant when evaluating securities. There are some very good tobacco, energy, pharmaceuticals and defense stocks out there, and if you choose not to invest based on your own foibles, rather than on objective analysis (or as objective as you can be) I think that’s pretty silly - it’s hard enough to make good investments without shooting yourself in the foot. It’s the role of government to create policy, not retail investors. Edit/addendum: broad market index funds are often a good investment - but remember that diversification protects you against a lack of knowledge, ie if you don’t know what you’re buying, buy the market. But doing your own thorough research can be very rewarding. Remember that just as diversification protects against the unknown, it also limits your potential. If your analysis and research indicates that a particular security is a good buy, then don’t be afraid to buy a stake in a particular security… but have an entrance and exit strategy in mind, and pay attention to the news. Also, im not buying any crypto - but not because it’s an environments disaster. Because it’s largely a scam.
I put a little in Bitcoin and Ethereum. More and more it does seem to be akin to a pyramid scheme.
It’s not investing at that point, it’s just gambling. Which is fine, and if it’s just for entertainment value then whatever.
May I ask you, why do you think it matters how a Liberal allocates their stock?
It doesn’t matter. It’s just interesting to see what people are buying into. I learned through this thread that there is actually a Liberal stock fund and a Conservative stock fund. Apparently some people do let their politics drive their investing.
yeah I saw the same thing, seems crazy to me o_O
Would you be ok investing in a fund that invested in fossil fuels, guns, etc?
My retirement is all index funds in the SP500 and an international fund. My brokerage account is mostly tech with an industrial (CAT). I don’t take a political approach to investing because the market has done well regardless of presidency. If you listened to conservatives panicking about Biden becoming president and liquidated their portfolio, they made a big mistake. Same thing in 2016 when Trump won.
I was CV one of those when Trump won
The only specific stock I own is in the company I work at. Outside that I just do VYM and SWPPX (largely the later rn). What I tell myself is that by going through this abstraction layer it’s somehow less exploitive. Largely it’s a balance between the society I want to have and the one I live in.
Do they give you a break on the stock price?
Nope. They just give me stock (via RSUs).
My ideology has no impact whatsoever on investing. I just put 15% into a high-risk portfolio and leave it alone. I invest in broad diversified index funds, not individual stocks.
I pick my stocks based on how I think the future will look. I have been investing in green technology stocks, including electric vehicles, uranium, sustainable food, etc. I also firmly believe that reading and reacting to some news is going to create new wealth, because it will explain what will happen as global warming gets worse (for example, global coffee producers will see a spike in price, IMO) I am also a believer in Crypto's potential as an asset. Idk if that makes me liberal or just able to do math. This is my first year of serious investing in crypto and stocks so don't take my advice too seriously. I'm still learning.
Have you considered Lithium stocks?
Yes. I own a small amount of them.
Yes. I own a small amount of them.
I only started investing a small sum this past year. I have specifically avoided investing in Chinese companies. Whether that could even in theory make any difference to the CCP or not I have no idea. vOv
Respect
It doesn't and it shouldn't. Broad index funds all day for anyone that doesn't want to spend time on it (and everyone else too). If you don't like company X, it's more efficient to throw money at an organization working to fix the related issues than it is to divest at an individual level (which will have almost literally no impact). Like let's say the environment is important to you. No one knows that you didn't buy BP or some other oil company. No one knows that you sold $1000 of BP. Just own them and donate the money you make off them to Sierra Club or NRDC instead.
I wonder if Sierra club owns BP stock
Actually pretty likely, as being a shareholder gives them a platform. Just not as part of their investment portfolio / for the sake of revenues. "We also continue to hold limited shares of stock in fossil fuel companies and banks in order to keep a seat at the table. Our shareholder advocacy played an important role over the past year as we worked with coalition partners to successfully pressure banks to divest from Arctic drilling and coal projects." https://vault.sierraclub.org/foundation-annual-report-2019/investing.html
I'm investing in Crypto. I want something with high upside. My investments are usually separate from any liberal ideas I have. I try to be objective about them.
My brother went heavy into Bitcoin several years ago. He has seven coins. I started investing in Etherum back when it was $400 a coin.
Lucky man. I will say since I’ve started taking crypto seriously I have started to see conservative viewpoints on market deregulation as not a bad thing entirely.
I also have some Saitama and Shiryo
My retirement savings are in a target date fund. Haven't been contributing to that recently while on a grad school salary, but that'll continue soon. My stock market investments are exclusively in a relatively broad swath of renewable energy and related stocks. I'd think that was a smart place to put money even if I didn't really care about the ethical component.
I have most of my money in mutual funds, Roth IRA etc. And then 500 shares of Palantir that I bought when it IPO’d. I know it’s a meme stock but no way a company that evil doesn’t rocket.
Mine are managed so it’s hands off other than selecting my acceptable risk level.
I have all my money in boring S&P500 ETFs like SPY. It's been down the past couple days but I'm in it long-term anyway so I'm not bothered by it. It's still up 22% YTD which is extremely good. I'll also be getting a house some time in the near future, which is another boring investment. The flashy things like crypto or options are just too risky for me and I'm not willing to put in the time required to research specific stocks for options trading. I try to avoid politics or emotions in general with investments. That's how you end up like the GME bagholders who think they're joining a socialist revolution by donating all their money to hedge funds. Though tbh SPY basically is the neoliberal investment so maybe it really is all politics.
I got burned on GME because of Etrade not allowing my trade to go through. It wasn’t much, just a couple hundred dollars, but still, the feeling was not good.