How to invest according to your values or your faith

Values-based investing aligns your personal values with your financial decisions. It includes “faith-based” investing, where people use their religious beliefs as a financial guide. For others, strong convictions about topics such as the environment may direct how they choose to invest their money.

Faith-based, or values-based, investing is a subset of socially responsible investing, but its focus is often narrower and usually seeks to exclude stocks, bonds, and funds in certain industries or themes. This type of investing can offer peace of mind that your money does not support certain companies and their products that you view as opposed to your convictions. And although such an investing strategy may deliver lower returns versus a portfolio that would have included those “taboo” investments, many investors justify it in the name of making the world a better place.