I'm so glad you found my blog! I created this site back in 2013, and I'm honoured that so many people have found it useful.

I'll leave it here for posterity's sake, but all of my new work is being published under the Good Investing brand. Please follow me here:

Website

YouTube

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Here we are on Feb 29 2020, in the midst of a Coronavirus correction. I have no idea how this is going to play out, and neither does anybody else. Markets could bounce back Monday, or this could be the start of a global recession. If I had a crystal ball or a time machine, I wouldn’t be writing this article right now.

So, what do I do?

Well, conventional wisdom says do nothing. Keep calm and rebalance. I rebalanced recently, so I just bought a bunch of bond ETFs. Now, I rebalance again to sell some of those bond ETFs and buy stock ETFs since they are cheaper. If you haven’t rebalanced in awhile, then this is a good reminder of why it’s important to get in the habit.

Ten years ago, I started counting private investments in the global green economy. Together with renowned futurist Hazel Henderson from Ethical Market Media, we put together the first Green Transition Scoreboard that detailed $1.3 trillion of green investments. I’ve been at it ever since, aggregating year-by-year the growth of the global green economy.

Here’s a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Tim taking on Kevin O’Leary back in 2010 when our total hit $2 trillion:

My, how far we’ve come! I’m proud to announce that this year’s report is out, detailing more than $10 trillion! Here’s the breakdown by sector:

If news reports are any indication, people are finally catching on to the growing demand for green investments. I think they’re also figuring out that I’m a good interview : )

Here’s the clip from last night’s story on CBC’s The National: 

Investing comes with risk. This article is a general discussion of the merits and risks associated with these ETFs, not a specific recommendation. Speak to an investment professional and make sure your portfolio is diversified. Tim Nash does not own any shares of the ETFs mentioned in this article.

Imagine my great joy when I saw this announcement:

Vanguard launches two new ESG index ETFs

Vanguard is an absolute leader in the ETF world, but they sadly didn’t have any sustainability ETFs - until now! They launched two last month:

ESG U.S. Stock ETF (ESGV)

Vanguard ESG International Stock ETF (VSGX)

I have some issues with their approach (you’ll see below), but they are - by a mile - the most diversified and the least expensive sustainability ETFs available today. Together, they make it very easy for investors to ‘do less evil’ with global stocks and now I need to update my Organic Couch Potato model portfolio.

We started counting green investments in 2009, just as The Great Recession was starting to turn around. Research was telling us that roughly $10 trillion of investments in green sectors were needed by 2020 to avoid worst-case climate scenarios. A friend and mentor Hazel Henderson posed the question, “How close are we?”, and I decided to start counting.

Investing comes with risk. This article is a general discussion of the merits and risks associated with these ETFs, not a specific recommendation. Speak to an investment professional and make sure your portfolio is diversified. Tim Nash owns shares of PZD. Tim does not own shares of the other ETFs mentioned in this article.

This time last year, it was hard to see a bright future for green technologies as the US prepared to inaugurate a President who dismisses climate change. But America is not the world, and nothing trumps good economics. Green investments had a banner year in 2017, outperforming most other sectors:

(all data taken from Morningstar.ca on Dec 31, 2017)

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF (LIT) +63.36%

The Organics ETF (ORG) +41.20%

PowerShares Cleantech Portfolio (PZD) +30.26%

PowerShares Global Clean Energy ETF (PBD) +27.76%

Guggenheim Global Water Portfolio (CGW) +26.63%

Investing comes with risk. This article is a general discussion of the merits and risks associated with these ETFs, not a specific recommendation. Speak to an investment professional and make sure your portfolio is diversified. Tim Nash does not own any shares of the ETFs mentioned in this article.

I was honoured to appear on the Canadian Couch Potato’s podcast (you can listen here). We had a great chat about my approach to index investing and I decided it was time to update my Organic Couch Potato model portfolio.

The most profound change to the portfolio is that we can swap out the old Meritas International Equity mutual fund (with its 1.96% MER) for a couple of new sustainable ETFs that give us global exposure at a much lower cost (0.4% – 0.45%). They’re not perfect, but are a good option for people looking to build a globally-diversified portfolio with a sustainability lens:

iShares MSCI EAFE ESG Optimized ETF (Rich Countries in Europe, Australia, Far East)

iShares MSCI EM ESG Optimized ETF (Emerging Markets like China, India, Brazil)

***Disclosure: I am a member of three credit unions: Libro, Alterna, and DUCA. I have not been compensated for this piece (nor do I earn any income from my blog). I am a co-operative fanboy who genuinely thinks credit unions are awesome.***

I received lots of feedback from my last post How To Fire Your Bank. Lots of readers were positive, some defended the big banks, but most people just wanted to know more. I couldn’t believe how many people assumed there had to be some sacrifice involved with joining a Credit Union, and that they would have to settle for fewer services. When hearing this in person, I gleefully pull out my smartphone and show them the map of ATMs and one of my mobile apps for easy banking. You can check it out yourself by visiting this site to see which institutions are part of The Exchange ATM network: http://www.the-exchange.ca/default.aspx?PageID=1020&LangID=en

I deliberately wanted my previous blog to be a practical how-to guide, without digging deeper into the ‘why’. I didn’t want to overwhelm people and lose them in the weeds. This piece is a bit deeper down the rabbit hole, so come along with me to find out why Credit Unions are awesome: