Date

 

 

Explanation of investment accounts -  "You can think of a Roth IRA, a 401k and a taxable investment account as envelopes. Everything in your Roth IRA envelope is taxed one way, everything in your 401k is taxed a different way, and taxable investments are taxed in all the ways (kidding but not really).

Inside the envelopes are the things you’ve chosen to invest in— so, my Roth IRA only has an index fund in it. My taxable income envelope has individual stocks (this is my “selfish altruism” so our Tesla and Beyond Meat stocks are in here). If I structured things differently, I could have individual stocks in different envelopes—or different types of index funds. The goal (for retirement investments at least) should be to max out the amount you put into the envelopes with tax breaks before you put any investments in the taxable income envelope.

General Index Funds vs "Green" Funds - I also wanted to clarify about general index funds vs ethical or “green” funds. Just because a general index fund performs better than an ethical fund doesn’t necessarily mean the profits in the index fund are all coming from oil or for-profit prisons. Index funds are super diversified so there are probably things like lightbulb manufacturers in there—  I personally feel fine about manufacturing lightbulbs, but would a lightbulb manufacturer pass the standards put together by an ethical or a green index fund? The point being, index funds are just like the rest of the world— your index fund might have for profit prisons, but it also might have Beyond Meat stock in it. It’s a mix of everything available on the market and just because it might contain less-great investments doesn’t mean it doesn’t also have awesome companies in there too."

Have more questions for Kate? Please email Kate at kateanania1@gmail.com