Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by cityzen 2241 days ago
The problem (for me) with index funds is that you end up participating in stocks for companies you may not want. For example, I don't want a penny of my money to go to Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc. Here's the VFAIX top ten holdings:

Microsoft Corp Apple Inc Amazon.com Inc Facebook Inc A Berkshire Hathaway Inc B Alphabet Inc Class C Alphabet Inc A Johnson & Johnson Visa Inc Class A Procter & Gamble Co

It has always blown my mind that the answer for "retirement" now is to put your money in the online casino.

As a father of two young kids, the last thing I want to do is contribute to the erosion of any sense of privacy my kids may have in the future. Using Facebook as a tool for retirement is just as dumb to me as using Facebook for anything else.
2 comments
sneak 2241 days ago
Choosing to invest or not invest in Facebook does not change a single thing about whether or not society as a whole chooses to use Facebook and whether or not, via that use, Facebook becomes powerful and further erodes societal values placed around privacy. Facebook would still be Facebook (and thus dangerous) even if it were privately held.

Facebook is Facebook because they have an app that people love to use, and that gives them the power to sell and control placement in the communication between friends and acquaintances back to those same communities. They're not powerful because of their share price.

Index invest away. I have Facebook blocked at my router but I still own them via index funds.

link
cityzen 2241 days ago
Cool, I think you missed my point, though. I personally do not want to have a penny invested in Facebook/Google/Amazon. I do not care about the gains or losses or the number of people that love to use their apps/services.

Money isn't everything.

link
blaser-waffle 2241 days ago
There are ethical investing firms, and they offer ethical investing mutual funds and ETFs -- my wife holds a few of their offerings. Their performance isn't amazing.

You're also not obligated to buy an ETF -- you can create your own "index" without much effort. The OP's $80k would let them do that, were they so inclined. Maybe not all 500 in the S&P, but a lot.

link
cityzen 2241 days ago
Eh, after seeing the pile of dogshit that VCs are pushing on the public markets lately, I've lost a lot of faith in publicly traded companies.
link
oldsklgdfth 2241 days ago
What do you do for retirement? Do you not have a 401k that invests in some index fund?
link