Activate Your Money

CHAPTER 4Cash: Activate Your Savings and Checking Accounts

Over the next several chapters, we'll be discussing your investment options—asset class by asset class. We will look at what each class is, how it works, and the values-aligned investment choices you have. We'll start, in this chapter, with the first asset class: cash. Your cash should not be overlooked when you're thinking about a value-aligned portfolio. Like any other investment you make, it is being used for some purpose, and you have the right to choose a bank that uses your money to support the things you care about.

This chapter will help you think differently about your cash and the impact it is having on the world. It describes a range of banking options through which you can express your values, and it provides you with the step-by-step actions required to shift your assets from your current bank to a financial institution that is driven by more than the bottom line. By changing banks, you might also find that you receive higher interest, pay lower fees, and/or receive more personalized customer service.

In 2011, I transferred my savings and checking accounts from Wells Fargo and Citibank to New Resource Bank, which aspired to invest 100% of its loan portfolio in businesses that advanced sustainability. I loved New Resource Bank! They were small, local, and loaned my money to green businesses. When I started writing this chapter, my bank was in the process of being acquired by Amalgamated Bank, another values-aligned ...