Thoughts on socially responsible investing with Aspiration.

Here are a few past posts I made on this topic:

These all vary in terms of what they consider to be socially responsible. For example, it's pretty tough to completely avoid oil and gas companies, but the Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund does have less than half the oil and gas that's in the US Total Stock Market (4.2% instead of 9.4%).

From a financial standpoint, I can't really recommend any socially responsible funds except for the Vanguard one because of high fees or poor performance. Here's the full list of funds that I've pulled together over time with expense ratio and ticker symbols included:

  • Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund Investor Shares 0.28% (VFTSX)
  • TIAA-CREF Social Choice Equity Fund Retail Class 0.48% (TICRX)
  • Calvert Social Index Fund Class A 0.75% (CSXAX)
  • Parnassus Core Equity Fund - Investor Shares 0.87% (PRBLX)
  • GuideStone Funds Growth Equity Fund Institutional Class 0.88% (GGEYX)
  • GuideStone Funds International Equity Fund Institutional Class 1.12% (GIEYX)
  • Neuberger Berman Socially Responsive Fund Institutional Class 0.69% (NBSLX)
  • DFA Emerging Markets Social Core Portfolio 0.66% (DFESX)
  • Neuberger Berman Socially Responsive Fund Investor Class 0.87% (NBSRX)
  • Parnassus Fund 0.86% (PARNX)
  • Ariel Fund Investor Class 1.03% (ARGFX)
  • Pax World Balanced Individual Investor Class Fund 0.91% (PAXWX)
  • Calvert Equity Portfolio Class A 1.23% (CSIEX)
  • Ariel Appreciation Fund Investor Class 1.13% (CAAPX)

They're ordered from best to worst, more or less.

Cheers.

/r/personalfinance Thread