A Whole New Take on Voting with Your Wallet

You don’t have to leave the table; you just have to have a voice

You probably know someone who’s left a relationship over political differences in the past few years. A conversation got heated over the dinner table. Each side’s viewpoints were intolerable to the other. Voices were raised. Feelings were hurt.

Everyone talked, but no one was listening. And finally, in frustration, someone walked away, maybe for a long time, maybe forever.

I’ve been lucky, so far. I haven’t had to let any of my people go, even though I’ve disagreed with plenty of them and they with me. But I did decide to sever ties with corporations whose values aren’t a good fit with mine.

That’s been easy to do when it comes to retail. I don’t want to support the meat industry, so I don’t buy meat. I don’t want to support the leather industry, so I don’t buy leather. I don’t want to support fast fashion, so I buy my clothes second-hand. Pretty straightforward, right?

I vote with my wallet when I shop. I want to take the same approach with my investing dollars, too, but that’s been harder. I’ve gone into the reasons for its difficulty elsewhere, so I won’t go into detail here. But to quickly summarize, researching individual stocks is time-consuming, and purchasing them can be risky.

Index funds that cover a wide swath of the market are a safer bet, and there are some that give at least a nod to values that go beyond profit and growth. These ESG funds (the acronym stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance) are typically based on exclusionary criteria. There are ESG index funds that leave out weapons manufacturers, for example, and ESG index funds that don’t include tobacco companies.

People who buy these funds are refusing to stay at the table with businesses whose practices they don’t support. It’s like refusing to break bread with people whose views and values are diametrically opposed to your own. Who needs the aggravation when engaging feels so much worse than cutting the cord?

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