On Blue Marbles and Vegan Stories
As you may know, I've ghostwritten several dozen books, a dozen of which are about personal finance, and several of which were New York Times bestsellers. Furthermore, my husband is a CFP (Certified Financial Planner) who manages the money of a bunch of families in addition to my measly retirement accounts. Measly, as in, if I weren't married to him I wouldn't be able to invest my money with him because I don't have enough.
Vegan and otherwise-activist friends constantly ask me for investment advice, which of course I am not qualified to dole out, but I can sometimes point them in a helpful direction. I must first say that I think everyone should have a financial planner who communicates with them about their goals and needs and time horizons (i.e., when you'll need what money), and of course their principles.
Principles are what cause most problems for vegans regarding investing, as there are few options for the (financially) average person. When you eliminate all of the industries you don't want to support, and when you consider that most funds have many companies in them, most funds will have a company or two (or ten) that you don't want to support, not to mention the exact companies (though not the general make-up) of the fund are not static. This is not even close to an ideal situation.
Another thing that trips up many vegans--in my experience--is that their anti-capitalism stance translates into not appreciating money or how necessary it's going to be when they reach 65. I know I've said this before, but needing money for retirement is real. Most of us are going to reach an age when we are not as appreciated as when we were younger, and that will be reflected in our dwindling opportunities for income generation (again, this won't happen to everyone, but it is most often the case). How are you going to take care of yourself after you're 60 or 65? Do you know how much money you'll need for food, health insurance, a home, a car, and the insurances they require?
Recently a couple of people close to me who have gone vegan and are unabashed capitalists, noted (and this is just one quote that expresses the sentiment): "What's with all these vegan people wearing their poverty on their sleeve?" Granted, that's a judgment from a person entirely on the outside, who has peeked in for all of three hours (he went to his first vegan gathering), but there is a grain of truth in it, at least from what I've seen in 20 years.
Okay, enough of the lecture. Today I bring you Blue Marble, a "Socially Active Investment Firm" that "specializes in services that serve green and social investors with SRI accounts such as: Retirement, College, Trust, Estate, Business, Non-Profit and Charity." (SRI means socially-responsible investing, by the way.) The site has great calculators in the "info kiosk," and you can invest with under $10,000 (I pretended I wanted to start an IRA with under $10,000 to see if that was possible, and it was), which doesn't happen too often when it comes to highly-specialized investments. There are also helpful and informative articles, graphics and slideshows, and I found that nothing was condescending.
You won't agree with everything or all of their choices, but if you're looking for a way to invest or even for some venture philanthropy opportunities that might return some cash (that's the way I look at some investments), Blue Marble might be a good match for you.
And finally, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine needs your vegan success story.
Have you been able to improve your health with a vegan diet?
Have you lost a significant amount of weight from being on a vegan diet and kept it off? Have you had success in treating diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis, migraines, acne, or some other condition with a vegan diet? Well, we need you!
Please share your experience with us so we can share it with others. We often hear from journalists looking for success stories and we may want to put them in touch with you, feature you in one of our publications, or post your experience to our Web site. If you have a compelling story you're willing to share with the press, please submit your story here.
Thank you and we look forward to hearing about your success story soon. Due to the large number of submissions, we will be unable to contact each person individually.
Questions can be sent to success@pcrm.org.
Appreciate our "tiny, lovely, and fragile blue marble" today, and every day.



