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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Socially Responsible Investing

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Can investors make money and invest in good companies at the same time? This is what this book is all about. Some investors do not care if the company of choice manufactures products, such as cigarettes, that potentially can kill people, as long as earnings, profit margins, or stock prices have the potential to increase. If you are an investor that finds it important to invest in companies that are socially responsible while making profits, then this book is for you.

In this book, the author writes about important issues to socially responsible investors such as environmental, societal, corporate governance, economic, and community investment issues. It teaches investors how to screen or select stocks or mutual funds that meet the requirement of socially responsible companies. While investors can select individual companies, mutual funds are the preferred way for investors to be involved in this type of investing, and that's why the author dedicates four chapters to mutual funds. I recommend this book to investors interested in socially responsible investing.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

You have to be a complete idiot to even consider wasting your hard earned money on "socially responsible investing." Is that too harsh a statement? Consider this: According to financial analyst Henry Blodget, writing in Atlantic Monthly (October 2007), if you had invested $1,000 in the S&P 500 in 1957, you would have ended up with $124,000 in 2003. However, if you had invested the same $1,000 in just the stock of Philip Morris, you would have ended up with $4.6 million. So if the purpose of investing is to make money, excluding Philip Morris from your portfolio would have been totally irrational. Social investing is a marketing ploy pitched to guilty baby boomers, trying to convince them that that they can make money and feel good too! Here's a better idea: Get the best return you can from your investments and use the proceeds to make a contribution to the charity of your choice. And what's more, you'll get a tax deduction.