If you have a goal that requires a lot of money, it can be difficult to feel like you’re making any progress. After all, finding a dream home is the easy part; paying for the dream home is where the challenges begin. Investing in short-term stocks is one way that you can build up a bit of money over a few years by maximizing your returns. After all, stocks like Tesla have historically performed well year-over-year, meaning that if you bought stock in the company even a few years ago, you could sell today with a major profit.
While some investors are content to invest in anything and everything that could make them money, others have more of an ethical approach to investing. For example, faith-based investing pairs your religious morals with investing common sense to allow you to build wealth without supporting companies whose policies and values you disagree with. Read on to learn more about how to adopt a faith-based investing strategy in your own life to help fund your future dreams.
Do your homework.
One of the biggest components of faith-based investing is doing your homework. Often, companies do their best to cover up the unsavory aspects of their business practices. As such, you need to be able to really take a look at the CEO and other leaders of the company to see how they conduct themselves at the company and in public. Supporting a company run by a known abuser, divorcee, or cheater may go against your religious principles. As a result, you may determine that you can’t support those companies with a good conscience. The same can be said for companies that fund military technology or research or use child labor overseas to cut down costs.
It’s also important to research the investment brokerage and other alternative investment platforms you’re planning to conduct your investments and manage your portfolio. Taking a look at various Vanguard reviews or Yieldstreet complaints can help you know more about who you’re dealing with and how they treat their customers and clients.
When in doubt, find ways to invest in explicitly religious companies.
Of course, there are some times that it can be difficult to find all of the information you want when it comes to taking a faith-based approach to your investments. In these sorts of situations, you can do some research to discover companies with Christian values (or whatever religion you’re basing your investments on). For example, companies like Chik-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and even newer startups like book publisher Alabaster are proud to support religious philanthropies and conduct their companies with Christian values. If you’re United Methodist, you could decide to invest in a company that produces or sells baptism supplies or other items related to the sacraments. Sometimes, it’s easier to find more overtly religious companies than it is to find out the dark secrets of more “traditional,” secular companies. So, if you’re struggling to find companies that fit with your values, start with more of an eye towards religion in the first place.
Like any other decision you make about where to spend your money, where you choose to invest your money is a personal choice (it is called personal finance, after all)! Just like a vegan may not want to support a company that sells leather products or hamburgers, it’s only natural that a devout Christian, Muslim, or Jew would want to be a bit more specific in the way they choose to invest. By doing your research and finding explicitly religious companies, you’ll be able to ensure that your faith-based approach to investing mirrors your own religious values.
