|
January 22, 2001
Book Review: Investing With Your Values
Thorough handbook on socially responsible investing is revised for the 21st century.
SocialFunds.com --
One of the most comprehensive books on the market about socially responsible investing has been
updated one year after its first appearance in bookstores. The new edition of "Investing with Your
Values: Making Money and Making a Difference" tightens its holistic approach to socially
responsible investing, offering a framework in which readers can draw together financial goals and
values. The book also delivers on practical terms, as authors Hal Brill, Jack A. Brill and Cliff
Feigenbaum give readers a wealth of information on the various investment options available to
social investors.
 The authors start off by defining their social
investing framework, which they have dubbed "Natural Investing." This term derives from what the
authors see as inherent tendencies in all humans: "The natural desire to be of service, to "make a
difference" and help improve life on Earth, for ourselves, our children, and children yet unborn.
The natural desire for integrity, to "walk our talk" and live in ways that are consistent with our
values."
This "Natural Investing" framework does have some new-age leanings that might
turn some readers off. But the authors are right to state that a true aligning of financial goals
and values requires an understanding of one's own ethics and values, and that such an understanding
requires self-analysis and perhaps even some soul-searching.
The lion's share of the book
focuses on material that most readers would expect from a socially responsible investing manual. A
total of nine chapters are devoted to an explanation of the different facets of socially
responsible investing and a discussion of the investment options available to social investors.
The authors represent the different aspects of socially responsible investing in a diagram
entitled "The Four Spokes of the Natural Investing Wheel." The four spokes are avoidance
screening, affirmative screening, shareholder activism and community investing. The authors
deliver a thorough explanation of each of the four categories, giving the reader a solid education
on social investing strategies.
Having provided a basis of understanding, the authors are
then able to examine potential investment vehicles. This segment begins with a basic investment
primer and then progresses to socially screened mutual funds, special-interest funds, stocks, bonds
and other investments. Practical information such as fund names, performance data and contact
telephone numbers make these chapters particularly useful.
The book closes with a mix of
concrete rationale regarding the need for social investing and discussions of other philosophical
topics such as Natural Taxes and the Natural Economy.
"Investing With Your Values" is an
all-inclusive handbook that should be an asset to novice and experienced social investors alike.
It is brimming with useful financial guidance and resource references, and providing anybody
willing to learn the necessary tools for becoming an enlightened social investor.
"Investing with Your Values: Making Money and Making a Difference"
by Hal Brill, Jack A.
Brill, and Cliff Feigenbaum. New Society Publishers, 2000.
Buy this book at Amazon.com
©
SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Top
| 
