Finance for a Better World

I wrote a piece on Finance for a Better World for my graduate school's website, the BGI.edu blog.  Check it out!

Having an Impact

I spent the past few days at the Net Impact Conference in Portland.  There were more than 2500 business professionals, Graduate Students and Undergraduates there to network and learn how to make business work for the greater good.  Net Impact is a network of business people using their skills to work for good.  I spent most of my time at the conference going to sessions about Finance.  Impact Investing was the buzzword of the day.  Impact Investing, as the Economist defined it in their article Happy Returns, are those investments "designed to yield both a financial return and a broader benefit to society."  JP Morgan estimates there could be a trillion dollars invested this way in less than ten years. Interesting stuff!

Ray Whitehouse/The Oregonian

I was also able to see the Occupy Portland people march by the convention center because Bank of America was holding an event there (while Net Impact was going on!). One of the protesters stopped to interview me on my opinions about the Occupy movement.  He was particularly interested in what I thought people who weren't comfortable with heading into the streets for the Occupy movement could do from their own homes.

I told him about Move Your Money project and how I thought the movement to get money out of the big banks and in to Credit Unions was the first thing people could do.  We talked about how every dollar each of us spends, whether on food or clothing or at other businesses, was a vote for something helpful or something damaging.  Shopping at local businesses helps keep money in the local economy.  Buying clothes made in the USA helps keep jobs on our shores.  Everything we do with our money makes a statement and even when we don't have much, we can use it to buy local produce or eat at local restaurants and not huge chains.

Time for me to move MY money!

I have been meaning to move my money out of Bank of America for over a year and I'm finally doing it!  After reading Think Progress's Five Reasons to Move Your Money Out of Bank of America, I just had to find the time to figure out what to do.

I found a really useful website started by Arianna Huffington: http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/.  It has a great video using It's a Wonderful Life.

I used the website to find local banks and credit unions near my house.  I'm in the process of moving my money out of Bank of America and in to BECU, a local credit union.  Here's a handy checklist to help you move your accounts:

7 SIMPLE STEPS TO MOVE YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT

1. Open Your New Account

In most cases, you should be able to open a checking account with an initial deposit of $35 to $100. At a credit union, you'll also become a member and co-owner at the same time.

2. Order New Checks and an ATM/Debit Card

These typically arrive within 1 to 2 weeks. You should also consider applying for a credit card from your new local bank or credit union at the same time.

3. Ask Your Employer to Reroute Your Direct Deposit

When you open your new account, ask the bank or credit union for a direct deposit authorization form that includes your new account information. Give this form to your employer and anyone else who makes direct deposits to your account. It may take one or more pay cycles for the change to be made, so keep your old checking account open and watch for the swith.

4. Contact Companies that Direct-Debit Your Account

Using your last bank statement, make a list of any businesses that you've authorized to directly debit your account. Ask your new bank or credit union for an automatic payments authorization form that includes your new account information. Send this to the businesses on your list.

5. Set-up Online Bill Paying for Your New Account

If you like to pay bills online, set up bill payment information for your new accoutn. Also, top automatic, recurring payments you have established through your old account.

6. Close Your Old Account

Once you have started receiving direct deposit into your new account and are sure that there are no outstanding checks or automatic debits that need to clear, close your account. Warning: do not just withdraw the last dollar and assume the account will fade away on is own. Your old big bank may start chargin you fees for having an empty or inactive checking account. Instead, follow the bank's procedure for closing out the account.

7. Enjoy Your New Local Banking Relationship!

This checklist was produced by the New Rules Project’s Community Banking Initiative. Visit newrules.org/banking for articles, graphs, studies, and more.

I made my own video about what I've been studying (sustainable finance) and making my money move.!

Stay posted for more information on how to move your investments so they too will support a better world!

Encouraging signs: moving money toward values

The resonance of the Occupy Wall Street movement is resounding.  All over the world people are gathering in cities and towns objecting to the corporate power and greed that has been the hallmark of the past years.

While the protesters were gaining strength and numbers this last week, it was the 3rd annual national gathering for Slow Money an organization founded several years ago to bring money together with values. As they say on their website: "the Slow Money Alliance is bringing people together around a new conversation about money that is too fast, about finance that is disconnected from people and place, about how we can begin fixing our economy from the ground up... starting with food.." Their annual gathering took place in San Francisco and hundreds of people came together to work to change the way that capital flows, bringing money to farms and producers and encouraging a "new generation of entrepreneurs, consumers and investors who are showing the way from Making A Killing to Making a Living."  Slow money is creating a network of members and investors who believe that we must "bring money back to earth."

Sign on to their network here: http://slowmoney.org/

MarketWatch wrote a piece about the gathering: Slow Money Offers Investing Alternative to Wall Street Protests.  With the Occupy Wall Street movement gaining steam, Slow Money offers one network of people committed to making real change in the financial system.

David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy, is an outspoken proponent of aligning our economy with our values.  He says, "The old economy of greed and dominion is dying.  A new economy of life and partnership is struggling to be born. The outcome is ours to choose." He recently wrote a great piece for Yes! Magazine, Why I'm in Solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet.

Sustainable Industries latest issue, Down on Main Street, suggests that Small Business could save the economy. Their article, Crackin' Piggy Banks talks about the latest trends in Micro Lending, Peer to Peer  Lending and Crowdfunding.

It's Our Money

This photograph is from the We are the 99% website.  The stories and pictures there are beautiful and tragic.  A powerful testament to the difficulties most Americans are facing today.  Story after story is told in photographs and handwriting.  Real people sharing with each other their difficulties and hoping that the community that has come together in the Occupy Wall Street movement will make a difference. 

This woman writes "I want kindness and truth and compassion and integrity in government!"  She also writes "All we want is for our children to have a fair opportunity to succeed." We are a citizenry feeling betrayed by our government.  Why?  

Even before the economy tanked income inequality had been growing.

And the difference between a CEO salary and the average worker is frightening and it is unique to the United States.  No wonder we're outraged!

Kindness and truth and compassion and integrity.  How do we make our money work for our values? How do we the 99% bring our resources together to create an economy which supports real people doing real jobs?  How do we make the world that creates opportunities for our children?

We have resources as we can see in the thousands and thousands of people peacefully sitting in cities in every state saying, we have had enough.  Wall Street isn't supporting us.  Corporations aren't creating something we value.  Our tax dollars should be working FOR the 99% not only for the wealthiest among us.  Paul Krugman in his column in the New York Times on October 6, 2011 said, "The protesters' indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right."

We need to find creative ways to use our money to invest in the world we want.  After all, it's our money.