Did you know you can actually make a positive environmental impact with the money you don’t spend? Charlotte Rosewood is a Financial Planner and last Wednesday, as part of a series on talks on #instalive, Charlotte gave us some top tips on how she likes to help her clients make smart decisions with their money.

Charlotte’s presentation was part of ‘Progress not Perfection’, a week-long run of talks hosted by Emma @los_social_ltd, a digitial Marketing Company. The sentiment behind this run of talks is that many of us have started the new year feeling like we want to make a change to our lives for the better but we are a bit overwhelmed and not sure where to start. Each talk gave top tips on how we can improve our lives - one step at a time. You can find any talks you missed on Los Social’s Instagram page.

So Charlotte spoke about pension investment funds and asked - do we really know how our money is being used while in these pension pots!? Pension investments funds can cover a wide variety of areas from stocks and bonds to private equity, real estate, infrastructure and securities such as gold. Do you know what your money is doing?? If you have any concerns about sustainability, supply chains paying fair wages, child labour, the climate crisis, carbon offsetting and so on, then solely knowing the return on your investment is not enough. Charlotte believes it is really worth spending time doing a bit of research. If you are anything like me, someone who has chopped and changed careers over the years, then you may have several different pension pots. Charlotte says that is all the more reason to look into what my money is being invested into. Charlotte suggests you find your pension statement/s and look at the funding options available to you within each one. Search for ethical investments and read up on which companies are actively trying to make a difference to the areas you feel concerned about. It may take a little work but it is worth it in the end - knowing that every month, while you continue to add to your pot, your money is being used in a beneficial way to help the planet and your own future.

But one word of warning - watch out for greenwashing. Just like in other industries, the financial industry sadly has its own share. There have been cases where funds’ claims don’t reflect the companies they invest in but that is not really surprising as the labelling of products in this industry is pretty unregulated. Thankfully this has been recognised by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority. Both of which are currently investigating greenwashing, and hopefully there will be new guidance out for consumers at some point soon.

If you’d like any advice or have any financial questions contact Charlotte through her website https://rosewoodfp.co.uk/about/ or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/charlotte.rosewoodfp/

Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/03/how-your-pension-can-save-the-planet/ - Which?

Zoë x

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