Hello and welcome to the STOCKED: Pantry with Purpose podcast. I was away last week and so am just now resuming my weekly reading from Ellevest.
Today I’ll be reading Money is Not Just Money from CEO, Sallie Krawcheck where she kicks off her February theme with the concept that money is power. Full disclosure: Ellevest is an affiliate “partner” of STOCKED.
Here goes:
I like to say that money can be the power to live the lives we want. To leave the job you hate, leave the relationship that no longer works for you, start the business you’re dreaming about, take that trip around the world (post-pandemic, of course, but a girl’s gotta dream).
Money can also be the power of protest. We saw that last week, with the Redditors buying up GameStop stock. Regardless of whether you saw it as a powerful protest against “the man” (in this case, Wall Street hedge funds) or market manipulation — and it really was a bit of a Rorschach test — it demonstrated the power of money coming together.
And it can be the power of the positive. One good thing to come out of 2020 was a significant increase in “impact investing,” which is simply aligning your investment dollars with your values to drive positive social and environmental change along with a financial return.
Investing your money in stocks and funds with better policies and practices on gender diversity, for example. Or companies that are doing right by the environment, that have a strong stance on social issues like human rights and racial justice, companies that have strong corporate governance.
That also means divesting — or taking your investment dollars out of — companies with policies and practices that don’t align with your values. Refusing to let the status quo stay the status quo.
If we collectively get capital to companies that align with our values — and starve those that don’t — it can make a difference.
Alright, that’s all she wrote. Thanks for listening and, as always, reach out to me on Substack with all your food and finance questions.
One reminder, we are halfway into February and need to make hay. On Valentine’s Day, I posted a “love-ly” osso bucco recipe and this week you can expect an inexpensive weeknight dinner and instruction on how to “fridge forage” to make graze boards. Talk soon.
Money is Not Just Money