Personal finance: How to save, spend, and think rationally about money
Finances can be a stressor, regardless of tax bracket. Here are tips for making better money decisions.
23 September, 2020
- Whether you have a lot of money or a lot of debt, it matters how you handle your personal finances. A crucial step when it comes to saving is to reassess your relationship with money and to learn to adopt a broader, more logical point of view.
- In this video, social innovator and activist Vicki Robin, psychologist Daniel Kahneman, Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton, and author Bruce Feiler offer advice on achieving financial independence, learning to control your emotions, spending smarter, and teaching children about money.
- It all starts with education and understanding. The more you know about how money works, the better you will be at avoiding mistakes and the easier it will be to take control of your financial circumstances.
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<div class="amazon-assets-widget__title" style="display: block;">Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Fully Revised and Updated for 2018</div>
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Venture investors need to invest in Black-owned businesses
Less than 1% of all venture capital funding in the US is given to Black entrepreneurs. Now is the time for that to change.
08 September, 2020
Credit: Big Think
- Abner Mason, CEO and founder of health care startup ConsejoSano, is calling for all venture capital firms in the United States to pledge to invest 13% of their funds in African American businesses.
- Currently, Black entrepreneurs receive less than 1% of all venture capital funding.
- The 13% target reflects the percentage of Black Americans and is a nod to the 13th Amendment.
<p>The murder of George Floyd has brought America to a much-needed reckoning on the racism in American society. Young people are marching, white people are reading, and churches are preaching about ways we as people can transform the way we treat Black people. Notably, many business leaders are pledging to end racism. But once the marching ends what will be different in America?</p><p>As a Black business leader, this newfound desire to address America's original sin is a breath of fresh air in the midst of this pandemic. But I wonder how long this new zeal to change will last and, more importantly, what practical steps and sacrifices will be made to make the promise to end racism real.</p><p>Here is one practical solution that all investors can take to make their promise real. I'm calling on all venture capital firms in the United States to pledge now to invest 13% of their funds in African American businesses. I suggest 13 as a target to both reflect the percentage of Black Americans and a nod to the 13th Amendment. I'm reaching out to friends in the social impact space to help me set up the organization that will monitor this.</p>
<blockquote>Here is one practical solution that all investors can take to make their promise real. I'm calling on all venture capital firms in the United States to pledge now to invest 13% of their funds in African American businesses. </blockquote>
<p>My life reflects both America at its best in terms of ending racism and at its worst.<br></p><p>As an African American CEO of the health care startup <a href="https://consejosano.com/" target="_blank">ConsejoSano</a>, I've focused on using technology to connect low-income and multi-cultural people to care in our health care system where their needs are often overlooked. Also, I've lived a blessed life. I grew up in an integrated public school in North Carolina where my parents and church taught me never to judge a book by its cover. They taught me that not all white people were motivated by racism and to seek out white allies in my life path.</p><p>This advice paid off. I found my way out of NC to a prep school in New England where I was one of seven Black students out of three hundred. I then made my way to Harvard College where Black students were less than five percent of my freshman class of thousands. I faced a choice that most young Black men of my generation made: Will I define myself solely by my race or pretty much ignore my race, ignoring racists, and look for allies? I chose the allies path. </p><p>After a short stint in the management consulting field, I found myself working in state government in the MA Department of Transportation where I learned a powerful truth about life—good intentions are not enough. No one cared that we had good intentions to get buses to passengers, we had to get the buses out to waiting passengers. Visible results, not intentions mattered. This lesson speaks to me today when I consider America's response to racism.</p><p>I went on to advise three governors and launched a nonprofit to address the AIDS crisis in Africa, helping to created what later would be called the PEPFAR program. What I learned through this entire career path was that I could pretty much sense and ignore racists and seek good white people at every level. These were my survival techniques.</p>
<p>This strategy hit a wall when I entered the venture capital arena launching a health tech company where I was asking wealthy white men to invest in the leadership of a Black man. In the more than 40 pitches I made to create our Series A, I encountered 99% white male investors who were blunt saying they were not investing in my product or projections; they would be investing in me. I could no longer follow my life strategy of ignoring investors with racist views. I was pitching the 1% of the 1% who lived lifestyles and had social worlds completely different from my own. We both could sense the cultural and lifestyle disconnect. Following my pitches I heard comments such as, 'I'm not comfortable with you being in charge,' or 'I'd imagine you being good at sales,' or 'Let's keep you as Chief Evangelist or something like that.'</p><p>What became clear to me was that uber-wealthy white men could imagine a Black leader as a minister not as a CEO. In my conversations with other Black startup leaders, I realized I was not alone. Then I looked at the data which confirmed my experience. I found <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/06/a-vcs-guide-to-investing-in-black-founders" target="_blank">only 1%</a> of venture capital-funded startup founders are Black. Ultimately, I did find investors who believed in me and my product and I was successful in gaining my Series A through white male investors who cared.</p><p>Today, I'm no longer a young Black man navigating the corridors of white power, but even as a successful entrepreneur I'm still facing the greatest degree of discrimination I've ever encountered in my life. Corporations posting 'Black Lives Matter' is nice, but as I learned in my job in transportation, the young Black entrepreneurs can no longer praise good intentions. They need results.</p><p>If America is serious about the desire to end racism, Black Americans are going to have to follow the lead of Langston Hughes who famously said, "I will not take 'but' for an answer."</p>
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Rethinking long-term investment strategies for the new normal
Take a step back and think about the best way to attain your retirement goals.
23 July, 2020
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- In these topsy turvy times, it can be hard to know how to go about ensuring your long-term financial health.
- Even before the pandemic, many underestimated their need to be proactive about saving for retirement.
- It may be tempting to reduce or pause your retirement contributions. Unless absolutely necessary, the best thing to do is ignore the panic and stay the course.
<p>No matter where you have been investing your money or whether you've started investing at all, now is a good time to reevaluate your portfolio and assess potential opportunities. </p><p>There is no question that the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking devastation on people's finances – <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56376" target="_blank">the Congressional Budget Office estimated</a> recently that the crisis has wiped out close to $8 trillion in growth that the US economy would have otherwise seen over the next decade. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/273909/seasonally-adjusted-monthly-unemployment-rate-in-the-us/" target="_blank">unemployment rate</a> is three times what it was in February. And yet, the stock market is rallying, which only reinforces the illusion of stability, prompting people to invest on a self-service basis to unprecedented degrees, while staying at home.</p><p>But even before the pandemic, many underestimated their need to be proactive about saving for retirement. With the gig economy surging over the past decade, employee benefits are less of a factor, putting more onus than ever on individuals to manage their own long-term financial planning. All the while, younger generations are trending towards earning less than – and living longer than – their predecessors.</p><p>Do you plan to keep working well into your 70s? The reality of today's economy dictates that you might have to.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUwODg0NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjQ3OTk3Nn0.4Q3XERFaUPwqDjhVJs5Sy1M41dRux3-Ua4qzFqbWUwM/img.png?width=980" id="dac8b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0b886e784646cb0c450ac8ac6ef87158" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>In <a href="https://bigthink.com/big-think-live/personal-finance-sallie-krawcheck" target="_self">these topsy turvy times</a>, it can be hard to know how to go about ensuring your long-term financial health. But with the economy being as it is, whatever advice you acted on in the past, and whatever mix of long-term investment types you felt served your retirement needs best, it's probably a good idea to revisit that logic.</p><p>What was once a conservative investment may have become high-risk, <a href="https://bigthink.com/cryptocurrency-markets-economic-uncertainty" target="_self">and vice versa</a>. New tax benefits, stimulus grants and bailouts are rapidly changing the landscape, too. This is the time to take a step back and think about the best way to attain your retirement goals.</p>First, secure your emergency fund
<p>While it's often true that it takes money to make money, investing without savings is not a good idea. Before taking the plunge, make sure that you are earning enough to live on and have cleared out any high-interest debts, for example credit card debt.</p><p>If you are covering your monthly expenses and have money left over, set some aside until you have enough for your household to live on for a few months – this is your <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/how-much-money-to-save-in-emergency-fund-rules" target="_blank">emergency fund</a>. If you are unable to work or have to cover an unexpected expense, this fund will make sure that you don't have to dip into your long-term investments to cover the gap. </p><p>Have you received stimulus money that you don't need for immediate expenses? Consider putting that towards your emergency fund if you don't already have one. Your emergency fund should cover at least three months of expenses, with six months being the ideal benchmark. </p><p>Once you've reached your target amount, there are a few ways for you to lock up your fund that will be both secure, easy to access, and may even earn you some interest. Some options include a high-yield bank account, money market accounts and Roth IRAs.</p>IRA or Roth IRA? It all depends on you.
<p>Individual retirement plans, or IRAs, let you contribute money that may be eligible for a deduction on your tax return. Plus you can defer taxes until you retire, when you will likely be in a lower tax bracket. If you've been laid off or your employer isn't keeping up with contributions, you can rollover eligible assets to an IRA.</p><p>If you are expecting to earn less income this year than last year, then it may be a good idea to consider converting some or all of your IRA holdings to a <a href="https://www.moneyunder30.com/roth-ira" target="_blank">Roth IRA investment account</a>. This means that you will owe tax on the converted funds now, but you will be able to withdraw from them tax-free in the future. Why does it matter if you are earning less? If you place in a lower bracket or are on unemployment, you will pay less taxes on your Roth IRA conversion. Just make sure that you have the funds to cover the taxes without having to dip into your retirement funds. </p><p>Another reason to convert now is the dip in the market. While this may have negatively impacted your portfolio, it also means that it's a buyers market. Buying low now could mean big earnings as the economy inevitably recovers down the line. </p>Keeping up with your 401(k)
<p>During difficult and volatile times, it may be tempting to reduce or pause your retirement contributions. </p><p>Unless absolutely necessary, the best thing to do is ignore the panic and stay the course. Continuing to make contributions even if your portfolio has taken a hit is your best bet right now. It may even be a good time to increase your contributions with stock prices lower. When the market returns and stock prices stabilize, this will translate to investment gains.</p><p>Another reason to keep investing, or to begin investing, is that every second counts. For many Americans, the number to hit for secure retirement is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/05/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-retire.html" target="_blank">$1.7 million</a>, and that can take a lot of time to build up to. Considering the current uncertainty, the faster you get started, the sooner you will be able to reach whatever the right number is for you. With many funds having taken hits, if you are still employed and spending less under lockdown, putting some extra money into retirement savings is a great way to get ahead of your financial goals.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUwODg0OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzIxNzc2OX0.FmUF5pUcYhnCVrMuwPvFb9LtblCNRZqv9nAHbny9-r8/img.png?width=980" id="2ee9b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5ba16a67d705d93ba8f1efadde15db7a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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<p>In one <a href="https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-US/News/2020/05/amid-COVID-19-more-employers-are-easing-access-to-401k-assets-than-cutting-matching-contributions" target="_blank">recent survey</a>, researchers found that 12 percent of employers have suspended matching 401k contributions, and another 23 percent are considering suspending contributions. If your employer is suspending or cutting 401k contributions, or if you have been fired, then consider rolling your savings over to an IRA or Roth IRA. Taking money out of your 401k may come with hefty penalties, so keeping this money invested is your best bet. </p>Laying foundations with real estate investment
<p>With the tumult of the markets, many investors are looking at the resilient real estate market for long term financial growth. This has been the case for nearly a decade, with <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/309233/stock-investments-lose-luster-covid-sell-off.aspx" target="_blank">35 percent of Americans</a> ranking real estate as the best investment bet over stocks, savings accounts, or gold. </p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUwODg1NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzI5ODkyNX0.uBBebPjwSH2o_x6nz_e2vzrvvX9YiHMQjFqEU12ap-8/img.png?width=980" id="4645f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ee37c7ad10622b83ecd3d0fbc715b462" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="chart of Americans' views on best investments" />
Gallup
<p>This isn't a bad idea – housing prices are still rising and will likely continue to do so into the future. But there are a few things to keep in mind. Even if this downturn won't affect housing the way it did during the 2008 crisis, unless you are confident that you will be able to make your mortgage payments and have saved money for a down payment, this type of long-term investment is a major commitment.</p><p>Of course, with interest rates lower than they've been in years, mortgages are more affordable, so if you are secure then this is a good time to buy. If you currently own your home, these reduced interest rates mean it is a good time to refinance for more favorable terms. </p><p>If you are looking at investing in rental or commercial real estate, COVID-19 has created some unfavorable circumstances you should be aware of. While unemployment and recession mean more people are renting than buying, with some even selling their homes and moving to a rental. The economic situation also means more tenants will be unable to pay rent consistently. Plus, distancing restrictions make showing properties a challenge. </p><p>For larger commercial properties, the market has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/12/investing-advice-real-estate-investment-buying-a-home-in-a-downturn.html" target="_blank">fallen dramatically</a>. With a 28 percent dip across all industries and a 48 percent drop in travel and tourism properties, buying into commercial real estate is tempting but poses risks if the industry doesn't recover. </p>Taking stock of the market
<p>One interesting investment trend that has emerged during the pandemic is online stock investing. Investment apps are <a href="https://marker.medium.com/how-robinhood-convinced-millennials-to-trade-their-way-through-a-pandemic-1a1db97c7e08" target="_blank">surging in popularity</a>, with Robinhood growing it's retail investor user base and experiencing a threefold increase in trades in the first half of 2020. The average age of users hovers at around 30, making stock trading the millennial investment of choice these days – but there is plenty to be wary of.</p><p>Many of the young people flocking to online investing are first-time investors with time on their hands and little money to spare. If you're looking to recoup lockdown losses or make a quick buck, know that stock market investing is risky and may not be the best idea for a long-term retirement strategy.</p><p>If you are able to maintain an emergency fund, make regular contributions to secure, long-term investments, and still have some money left over to play with, then the market is a great place to explore, with caution. But if you don't have a safety net, focus on saving first. </p>Conclusion
<p>Calling these times uncertain and tumultuous is an understatement. But despite short term chaos, it is important to stay committed to your long term financial goals. For most Americans, retirement means saving every month for decades on end – the pandemic hasn't changed this. </p> <p>However, it may be time to reassess your investments. For example, if your income has been cut or you are unemployed, then converting your IRAs or 401k to Roth IRAs may be your best bet. Of course, always make sure you are making your monthly expenses and have an emergency fund on hand before investing.</p>
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How start-ups raise capital when their bank account is empty
Big Think's co-founder and CEO, Victoria Montgomery Brown, offers six pieces of advice to founders in her forthcoming book.
20 July, 2020
Credit: PM Images via Getty Images
- Big Think's CEO and co-founder Victoria Montgomery Brown explores the challenges of being a female entrepreneur in her forthcoming book, Digital Goddess.
- In one chapter, Brown offers key insights into how to raise capital when you have no money and no MVP.
- She advises to use every edge at your disposal; perseverance and tenacity are essential.
<p>In 2017, 40 percent of entrepreneurs were female, representing a 58 percent uptick in female-owned businesses from a decade prior. Fifty-six percent of college students are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-degrees-of-separation-between-the-genders-in-college-keeps-growing/2019/10/25/8b2e5094-f2ab-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html" target="_blank">female</a>, a complete reversal from fifty years prior, when 58 percent of men filled university halls. Yet in 2017, only 2.2 percent of venture capital (VC) money went to women-founded companies. Society has changed, yet the worlds of start-ups and venture capital are still predominantly run by white men.</p><p>Big Think was founded in 2007 by Victoria Montgomery Brown and Peter Hopkins. As with many start-ups, the fundraising process provides quite a story, one that Brown has now decided to tell. Her forthcoming book, <em><a href="https://bit.ly/2B9sCDz" target="_blank">Digital Goddess: The Unfiltered Lessons of a Female Entrepreneur</a></em> (HarperCollins Leadership), reveals how this website came to be—and how women can overcome barriers in a male-dominated business world. </p><p>Below are six lessons from Brown's chapter on raising capital when you have no money or product. Brown writes that there are essential qualities for starting a business that help you navigate the terrain, such as a having a strong vision and maintaining unflinching tenacity. While some of these came naturally to Brown, others were hard-fought lessons that changed her for the better. The chapter—and the book—is a reminder that with perseverance and dedication to learning, anything is possible.</p>
<h3>Use whatever will get you in the door</h3><p>The greatest challenge every start-up faces is "first money in." Many investors are willing to back a good idea only when someone else has already committed—and they like to know who that someone else is.</p><p>In some ways, being a female founder has its advantages. As Brown writes, a Boston Consulting Group study shows that female-run start-ups outperform male-run start-ups, generating 78 cents in revenue per dollar invested compared to men at 31 cents. That's solid data, but you still need to get in the door.</p><p>Brown leaned heavily on her master's degree from Harvard Business School. This helped tremendously for her first investor meeting with Founder Collective co-founder David Frankel. He was enthusiastic, but he wanted to know who else was interested. Brown turned to former Harvard University president, Larry Summers. His buy-in increased Frankel's interest; he became the lead investor. </p><p>Meeting with such heavyweights is no easy matter for entrepreneurs with no product or history in founding a company. As Brown writes, "Study after study confirms that people tend to equate confidence with competence." Presenting Big Think confidently made the impression needed to secure funding.</p><p>With two investors in, landing Nantucket Nectars founder Tom Scott and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel was not as challenging as one might assume. Brown writes, "Getting the first investor feels impossible, but if you can pull it off, getting the second is sometimes surprisingly easy."</p><h3>Quit your day job</h3><p>This is one of the hardest aspects of being an entrepreneur. Not only do founders not have the capital needed to launch their company, they sometimes work for years without paying themselves. If investors are going to put money into your project, they have to know you're serious about success.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"People don't like to fund things if the entrepreneur and CEO don't have their entire skin in the game. You better have something big to lose, or how are people going to believe you are all in?"</p><p>With no income or savings, Brown quit her day job in order to devote her every waking hour to Big Think. Self-imposed deadlines made sure she hit her targets. Founding a company isn't comfortable; waiting for relief will only distract you from the work that needs to get done.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"If you truly want to start something—whatever it may be—waiting won't help…put yourself in a position where you <em>must</em> do it."</p><p>Three months after quitting her day job, money showed up in Big Think's bank account. </p><h3>Build momentum</h3><p>If you're trying to convince investors to believe in you—and it is<em> you</em> that they're investing in, more than your product—show them traction, even when you don't have it. Go out and make it happen. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Our investors needed to be intrigued by the idea and see its potential to succeed and to scale, but they also needed to see that I was actually in a place of discomfort if it didn't work out."</p><p>Securing funding before showing a minimal viable product (MVP) is no easy task. Brown knew that she had to show <em>something</em>. Big Think started as a video platform; she needed experts to appear on video. Through their networks, Brown and Hopkins contacted Richard Branson, Moby, the Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman, and famed architect Lee Mindel. They wanted them to be anchors.</p><p>Convincing high-profile business leaders, artists, and academics to partake in a new project is as daunting as landing VCs. When these figures inevitably asked about precedent for such an initiative, Brown turned a potential negative into a positive. "No one. We are reaching out to a very select, initial group of experts to kick-start it."</p><p>Making people feel critical to a project's success is a powerful way to get their endorsement, Brown writes. More importantly, it worked. A risky play between content generators and financial backers worked out. Big Think had momentum. </p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ2NDI2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzIwMzMzMH0.3sLYr31G-fLT6f8P7LJj6RihCHh7hUaenZDR3IJRzto/img.jpg?width=980" id="69df9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="46a3773bba860036123eefb38cbbb229" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><h3>Do your research</h3><p>As mentioned, investors are often more interested you than your product. As Brown writes, fundraising is "about creating a situation where investors get a real glimpse of who you are and why they should invest in <em>you</em>."</p><p>It's not a one-way street. You should also be interested in <em>them</em>.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Be truly interested in the person you are meeting or don't bother meeting."</p><p>Brown advises looking beyond LinkedIn profiles and superficial bullet points. Investigate their interests, such as their passions and philanthropic pursuits. Understand why they might be interested in your venture and where it intersects with their business. Discuss topics outside of the investment opportunity. Engage them as people, not bank accounts.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Helping others feel attractive and special—not in a sexual way but in a human way—helps them see you as a more attractive person, too. But you have to mean it."</p><h3>Learn to say yes</h3><p>The discomfort of being a founder includes stretching your boundaries. PayPal famously iterated numerous times before finding success. Flexibility is key if you want to survive. Sometimes that means admitting your limitations.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Here's something major that HBS [Harvard Business School] taught me. You don't need to know how to do things, you need to know how to ask people to do things for you."</p><p>Finding the right people is one aspect of saying yes. By admitting your limitations, you say yes to help. But there's also saying yes to projects you're not entirely capable of pulling off.</p><p>After scoring a sponsorship with Pfizer, the second Big Think project was with MSNBC. The media company had a deal to provide expert-driven content with GE and SAP. They just didn't have a team to produce it. Being nimble, Big Think could turn it around quickly.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Smaller companies with greater agility can take advantage of this situation if they just have the courage to step up and offer."</p><p>Instead of focusing on the negatives, such as not having a website or even equipment, Brown and Hopkins saw the opportunity. They said yes, and completed the project without a hitch, because they had the foresight to say yes.</p><h3>Learn to say no</h3><p>Not everything demands a yes, however. Discernment matters in the frenetic world of start-ups.</p><p>There are investors, there are people that connect you with investors, and there are charlatans. As the latter often suck up oxygen in any room they enter, it's easy to confuse bluster with their capabilities.</p><p>And so we meet "Jake," who in the early days of Big Think promised a lot, demanded more, and delivered nothing.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"He hadn't brought us any investors, he hadn't booked any experts, he hadn't helped us put together the deck, so what were we doing spending time with him? He felt sort of sleazy, like a smooth talker but not a doer."</p><p>Brown told Jake he was not getting equity without deliverables during their final meeting. This news did not go over well. Jake yelled and stormed out. Such momentary discomfort is a low price for not giving up even a piece of your business. Calling our charlatans demands that you say no. Thankfully, for the future of Big Think, one bad evening paid off in the long run.</p>
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Credit: Harper Collins
<p><strong><a href="https://bit.ly/2ZAbMqO" target="_blank">Get the free download:</a></strong><strong> 7 Things You Need to Sort Out Before Starting a Business</strong></p><p><em>Digital Goddess: The Unfiltered Lessons of a Female Entrepreneur </em>by Big Think founder Victoria Montgomery Brown is available for <a href="https://bit.ly/2B9sCDz" target="_blank">preorder now</a>.</p><p>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://derekberes.substack.com/" target="_blank">Substack</a>. His next book is</em> "<em>Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."</em></p>
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What is ESG investing?
Transparency no doubt keeps organizations more accountable, but public companies need to reconnect with their true owners.
11 May, 2020
- ESG in investing stands for environmental, social and governance. It is a set of criteria investors can use to understand the values and the future of an organization.
- Companies pour resources into disclosing their ESG because, as the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Or so has been the thought for many years.
- While ESG is undoubtedly good, says John Fullerton, mere transparency is not going to solve the world's sustainability issues. For that, public companies need to act more like private companies and be responsible to their owners.
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