Michael H. Shuman - Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: How to Invest Locally Using Self-Directed IRAs and Solo 401(k)s

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR LIFE IS

OTHER BOOKS BY MICHAEL H. SHUMAN

The Local Economy Solution (2015)

Local Dollars, Local Sense (2012)

The Small-Mart Revolution (2006)

Going Local (1998)

How to Invest Locally Using
Self-Directed IRAs and Solo 401ks

MICHAEL H. SHUMAN

Bestselling author of The Small-Mart Revolution

FOREWORD BY MORGAN SIMON

BerrettKoehler Publishers, Inc.

Put Your Money Where Your Life Is

Copyright 2020 by MIchael Shuman
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-8890-4
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8891-1
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8892-8
Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-8893-5
2020-1
Book producer and text designer: Happenstance Type-O-Rama Cover designer: Rob Johnson, Toprotype, Inc.

To Cathy Berry, Guy Bazzani, the late Dick Lahn, Roy Pollock, and Kate Poole, all of whom generously invested in me and made this book possible

Candide Group, LLC (Candide Group) is a California state registered investment advisor located in Oakland, California. The content in the Foreword has been provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as investment, tax, or legal advice or as a recommendation for the purchase or sale of any security. The information and opinions stated in the Foreword reflect Morgan Simons views as of the time of publication and are subject to change.

The information and opinions contained within Put Your Money Where Your Life Is reflect the views of Michael Shuman and not necessarily those of Morgan Simon or Candide Group. Any investment advice or financial planning advice contained herein have been offered solely by the author. Candide Groups specific advice is given only within the context of our contractual agreements with each client. Candide Group and Morgan Simon are not responsible for the consequences of any decisions or actions taken as a result of the information provided herein and do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this book.

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Where Does Your Money Spend the Night?

T he vast majority of us have no idea where our money spends the night. When we turn over our money to the bank, or to a financial advisor, or to a retirement plan, it can feel as though its not ours anymore. And like anything that happens behind closed doors, this can make us nervouswill we achieve our financial goals? And for those of us who try to live ethically in other areas of our lifeis our money being used to help or harm others?

The sad truth is that the economy has largely been designed to harm, not help. Thats what led me to cofound Candide Group, a Registered Investment Advisor that helps families, foundations, athletes, and other cultural influencers who want their money working for social justice. Our company is named after the Voltaire novel, which talks about wrestling with the forces of good and evilwhich is what we do every day as impact investors.

When we get money wrong, we wind up with fossil fuel companies and private prisons. When we get money right, we get renewable energy and more ownership and autonomy for grassroots communities. We start to repair historic harms and transform our society. And when we do it right, we are able to effectively plan for the future, a future where our individual families have built the wealth they need to thrive and can live in thriving communities with others. As Indigenous activists like Lilla Watson have taught us, because our liberation is bound together inextricably, building wealth by harming others will never be fulfilling.

How do we move our money from the old paradigm to this newer, happier place, an economy that effectively serves us? We start by knowing where it spends the night. We seek out community banks and credit unions that keep our money local. We hold financial advisors accountable for the impact of their decisions. We map our powerperhaps you are an alumna of a university with a billion dollar endowment, or a teacher or city worker who is part of a trillion dollar pension fund, and can encourage that endowment or fund to make more ethical decisions. And as Michael Shuman explains in this important bookyou can take control of your own retirement savings.

In the pages that follow, you will learn about the ways you can shift your IRAs, 401ks, and 403bs into local businesses, projects, and people you care about. Some of Shumans suggestions are deeply personalgetting ourselves or our kids out of credit card debit or paying off our mortgage, for instance. Others propose learning about new investment opportunities in our broader communityin food co-ops, bookstores, and community land trusts, for exampleand then using what he calls DIY Accounts to move our tax-deferred savings into them. With these sorts of investments, you always know where your money spends the night.

I applaud you for pushing past some very reasonable fears in picking up this book. In my own work, I have helped move tens of millions into social investing every year and know just how difficult it can be to pick great investments. But in my journey from activist to investment advisor, Ive learned that the financial services industry benefits from being intentionally opaque and making us all feel as if we cant do this ourselves. So many of the pioneers in impact investing started out precisely by pushing past that fear with a strong belief that we could do it better.

And guess whatfrom Harvard Business Review to BlackRock,

But even as impact investing has gone mainstream, a lot of it is indeed impact washing from traditional financial institutions who think you can know how to change the world by looking down from a fortieth-story Manhattan high-rise. As I note in my book,