WIP #1
WIP #1
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index-funds.md
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| it's an ETF and not a mutual fund, you won't find it in any of your work sponsored retirement | ||
| plans like a 401k, 403b, of 457b. | ||
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| ## The Sphere Fossil-Free Mutual Fund |
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Don't forget to mention expense ratio -- 0.07% -- here.
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| # Saving for retirement as a form of climate action | |||
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Alternate title: Consider "Being an activist investor while passively investing"
index-funds.md
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| Retirement fund options, like Vanguard's mutual funds, overwhelmingly vote how company | ||
| management recommends. As you might expect, management recommendations are often | ||
| diametrically opposed to what the climate science demands humanity must do. For example, | ||
| the following are all [votes that the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (`$VFIAX`) took](https://vds.issgovernance.com/vds/#/MjAxMA==/) |
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More clearly call out the below table is not exhaustive and is an excerpt.
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Maybe this:
For example, the following are some of the votes that the Vanguard 500 ...
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index-funds.md
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| ## Introduction | ||
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| Your retirement nest egg is likely voting against the climate _hundreds of times_ per year. |
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voting is a surprising word here. Also a voting egg is a bit of a mixed metaphor?
With fewer metaphors this might be less surprising?
Your retirement savings funds are profiting at the expense of the climate...
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They are explicitly voting! But yes, less metaphor for sure.
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Suggestion: Be more explicit that when investing in traditional index funds, they proxy your shareholder voting rights (typically) in line with what management recommends.
index-funds.md
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| Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) funds aim to solve the problems | ||
| the above maligned corporate incentives. In short, ESG is a framework that organizations | ||
| implement in their corporate strategy to limit their negative environmental, social and | ||
| governance impact. These are salient concerns when considering climate change, biodiversity, |
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Combine the two preceding sentences? Environmental, social, and corporate governance is repeated too many times.
Is there anything in ESG about maximizing positive impact?
index-funds.md
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| Aside from the [reporting and disclosure problems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental,_social,_and_corporate_governance#Disclosure_and_regulation) | ||
| with ESG funds, they are also suboptimal from an investing perspective. Generally, ESG | ||
| indexes are actively managed and require much higher administrative fees than their | ||
| passively managed counterparts. The table below shows some of the most popular ESG funds |
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honest question: do these phrases need hyphens?
actively-managed
passively-managed
(Google suggests no dash is more common)
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I'm not sure! I am really bad at english.
index-funds.md
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| One glaring issue with the most favorable fund above is how Vanguard still votes your | ||
| shares in direct opposition to the ESG namesake. | ||
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| | Company | Proposal | Management Recommendation | `$VFTAX` Vote | `$VFIAX` Vote | |
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Why am I seeing this table again? Might be simpler to say ‘$VIFAX votes the same way $VFTAX votes on the issues above’
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Yes that's probably much better!
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Well, the newer rendition includes the other ESG funds.
index-funds.md
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| So despite the belief that your hard-earned money is working towards a more sustainable | ||
| climate, we have irrefutable proof above that it's not really much different at all. | ||
| This also raises many questions for me on the validity of ESG as a viable climate | ||
| metric, but I digress. |
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Ah yeah, I think you may have reviewed an older commit.
index-funds.md
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| passively managed it is able to offer a low 0.05% expense ratio. Over 30 years you'll | ||
| spend less than $16K on fund management fees. | ||
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| Unlike the morally bankrupt shareholder votes that traditional retirement funds make, |
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morally bankrupt is too strong? Perhaps just compromised ?
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The word ‘retirement’ shows up a lot in this post.
I assume it’s cause we all need to retire, and it’s a very-socially-acceptable reason to do capitalism! But are these funds retirement funds? Or is that just a reason to use them?
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| is stark. It does not proxy your shareholder votes exclusively on climate issues, but | ||
| that is one of their most prominent voting criteria. | ||
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| | Company | Proposal | Management Recommendation | `$VOTE` Vote | `$VFIAX` Vote | |
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Swap columns 2 and 3? So the new data shows up at the end, not in the middle?
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Change the column headings to drop the word Vote (now implied) and combine the two compromised funds?
`$VOTE` Vote --> `$VOTE`
`$VFIAX` Vote --> `$VIFAX` / `$VFTAX`
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| | Morgan Stanley | Adopt Fossil Fuel Lending and Underwriting Policy Consistent with IEA's Net Zero 2050 Scenario | Against | Against<sup>1</sup> | Against | | ||
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| Since `$VOTE` does not have a special index it tracks, instead opting for the largest ~500 |
index-funds.md
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| Similar to Engine No. 1's fund, `$SPFFX` votes your shares for the climate. | ||
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| | Company | Proposal | Management Recommendation | `$SPFFX` Vote | `$VFIAX` Vote | |
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Might be able to replace this copy of the table with a sentence? $SPFFX was consistent with $VOTE.
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| In contrast to the Engine No. 1 fund, `$SPFFX` is a _mutual fund_. Among some other | ||
| minor differences, this means that it's ready to be invested in within company | ||
| sponsored retirement funds. Well, theoretically. |
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The Well, theoretically is unnecessary? Or perhaps just say within _many_ company-sponsored retirement funds ?
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| [401k assets totaled over $5.6 Trillion in 2020](https://401kspecialistmag.com/401k-assets-totaled-5-6-trillion-in-first-quarter-2020/). | ||
| Just imagine how fast we could move the largest companies in the world towards climate | ||
| solutions if we forced them to give a shit. |
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‘give a shit’ is too crass of a way to end a post that’s otherwise very compelling to an audience of potential sceptics. And maybe you can use the language of capitalism to hit it harder?
Just imagine how fast we could move the largest companies in the world towards climate
solutions if it drives their share price.
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