JohnnyBGoode
Recycles dryer sheets
All -
I am helping a family friend get started in investing. She has been hesitant about the stock market overall so I've been doing a lot of education along the way. She opened a regular eTrade account last year and invested some and got a bit comfortable with the whole process. This year we talked and I suggested she open a Roth IRA at eTrade and start diligently saving for retirement. She is an independent contractor in her early 30's. She makes decent money but as we all know it is important to fund retirement accounts ASAP.
Anyway, she has warmed up generally speaking to the idea of investing but she is strongly against putting any money into oil companies. I found the SPYX ETF last year which invests in the S&P 500 but excludes companies with fossil fuel holdings. The ER is nice (0.2%) and the returns ironically have done better than SPY.
As we were talking about what to put in the ROTH, I was talking about the importance of diversification and she liked that approach. So I'm wondering: is there something similar to SPYX but more diversified (e.g. not just large US companies). I found a website called fossilfreefunds.org that seems to do a good job finding funds that are "socially responsible" but you can't filter on ER or performance, so it is difficult to sift through them all. I do know if we pick a fund with international exposure the ER will likely go up, but obviously it will be good to keep it as low as possible.
Any suggestions on broad-based, socially responsible index funds or ETFs that still have low ER but also good performance? Thanks!
I am helping a family friend get started in investing. She has been hesitant about the stock market overall so I've been doing a lot of education along the way. She opened a regular eTrade account last year and invested some and got a bit comfortable with the whole process. This year we talked and I suggested she open a Roth IRA at eTrade and start diligently saving for retirement. She is an independent contractor in her early 30's. She makes decent money but as we all know it is important to fund retirement accounts ASAP.
Anyway, she has warmed up generally speaking to the idea of investing but she is strongly against putting any money into oil companies. I found the SPYX ETF last year which invests in the S&P 500 but excludes companies with fossil fuel holdings. The ER is nice (0.2%) and the returns ironically have done better than SPY.
As we were talking about what to put in the ROTH, I was talking about the importance of diversification and she liked that approach. So I'm wondering: is there something similar to SPYX but more diversified (e.g. not just large US companies). I found a website called fossilfreefunds.org that seems to do a good job finding funds that are "socially responsible" but you can't filter on ER or performance, so it is difficult to sift through them all. I do know if we pick a fund with international exposure the ER will likely go up, but obviously it will be good to keep it as low as possible.
Any suggestions on broad-based, socially responsible index funds or ETFs that still have low ER but also good performance? Thanks!
