The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?

Early in my career, I worked in a big office with about 25 other financial advisors. 

One of these advisors was about 10 years older than I was at the time. He rode his bike to work every day, and he leaned pretty far left on the political spectrum. His niche was green investing, which was really gaining in visibility and popularity at the time. Being in the deep blue city of Portland, Oregon, he was able to attract like-minded clients who embraced his green investing approach. 

He put all of his clients' eggs in the green investing basket. He invested in solar and wind companies, stocks of coffee companies with sustainable practices, and shunned anything having to do with oil or the military. 

In 2008 and 2009, you could make a strong argument for these new technologies and governments and people focused on reducing their carbon footprint and trying to address climate change, you could make a strong argument for why this investment bias would pay off and make his clients wealthier while investing with an eye toward their values. 

But the problem was, he was way too early to embrace the trend of ESG investing. His clients lost money, and his advisory practice didn’t really grow

The moral of this story is that political views and how you view the world and the future - for better or worse - can create strong biases and blind spots when it comes to how you construct an investment portfolio, so it’s important that you maintain a well-diversified portfolio no matter your political leanings. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.  

 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance