04 September 2004

As a state employee, I get to pay into my own deferred compensation retirement account (it's not a Roth IRA, but it's similar). I decided to be good and put 40% into the socially responsible fund, and thus far that fund has been horrible. Not even competitive. Rethinking the wisdom of mixing social views with investing, I wondered, what about Christians? Surely they need their own funds that reflect their social/religious views. I didn't recall this topic ever coming up on the blog, so I did 10 seconds of research, and sure enough, they're out there. Here's one called the Noah Fund, and here's another called the Timothy Plan.

The rules for these funds are no investment in gambling, liquor, tobacco, pornography, gay lifestyles or abortion. Hmmm. Which of the above isn't highly lucrative? Actually, I bet this precludes the Christians from investing in most any health care-affiliated company, since they'd have partnerships with hospitals that do abortions. I highly doubt there is much private capital invested in gay lifestyles -- it's sort of something people do in private, not something you buy.

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