Your nest egg and moral dilemma

Ok, so you have a few mutual funds in your retirement plan and they seem to have a good performance historically, you review some prospectus and then decide to invest 5-10% or more from your monthly paycheck...did you realize that your choice of mutual funds have ethical implications?

Consider this - majority of the fund managers are just trying to find good performance portfolios than screening the investment for socially responsible investment options. Recently McCain's wife sells her stake in Sudan-related investment and Harvard divested from some of its investments in PetroChina and Sinopec. Are we seeing a shift in paradigm where consumers have finally started realizing the impact on the investment choices they make? Will this cause the mutual fund managers and other institutional holders to start carefully reviewing their portfolios and invest more in screening the stocks they hold? I guess the answer is relative - As long as the consumers are more aware of their ethical stakes in such investment, they can make a difference in where their money gets used.

One example I would like to prove is that socially responsible investing does not hurt your financial bottom-line.

http://www.socialinvest.org/
http://www.domini.com/