Giving Back Can Benefit Others & Your Retirement Account

Spreading goodwill and helping our fellow man always comes into sharper focus during the holiday season. It’s a time when people give back for the many blessings they enjoy in their personal and professional lives.

Rocket Dollar account holders can use their Self-Directed Solo 401(k)s to not only increase their retirement savings but also spread goodwill through select investment opportunities that positively impact their communities and people living in them.

Spreading Goodwill Through Impact and Socially Responsible Investing

Impact investing unlocks the power of your retirement capital to do good. Impact investments are expected to generate positive returns, but more importantly, they positively influence social and environmental causes.

The Global Impact Investing Network defines impact investing by the following four characteristics:

• Intentionality. Investments made with the intent to create positive social or environmental impact.
• Investment with Return Expectations. Investments at the minimum are expected to generate a return on the capital expended.
• Range of Return Expectations and Asset Classes. The amount of return ranges across varying asset classes.
• Impact Measurement. Investments lead to measurable positive progress.

More and more fund managers, private foundations, and individual investors are seeking investments that align closely with their personal beliefs. At Rocket Dollar, retirement investors have used their Self-Directed Solo 401(k)s to spread goodwill among their communities by investing in opportunities that positively impact people close to them.

Socially Responsible Investment Opportunities

Socially responsible investing goes by many different names, including community investing, green investing, mission-related investing, and values-based investing. Investment opportunities can be found across the business spectrum, from healthcare to renewable energy, gender diversity to child welfare, and clean technology to human rights.

Socially-responsible investing is a growing trend: From 2016 to 2018, values-based investing grew 38 percent, and today more than $1 out of every $4 under management in the U.S. is invested in a socially-responsible cause, the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment reports.

Rocket Dollar account holders also have jumped on the impact-investment bandwagon. One used funds from his Solo 401(k)s to purchase an income property that he rents out to a fellow church member, while others enjoyed positive returns after investing in a popular bar and grill that expanded its footprint in the Austin, Texas area.

These investments were a direct helping hand to people living in their communities.

Using Your Self-Directed Solo 401(k) as an Instrument of Goodwill

There are many ways Rocket Dollar retirement investors can use their Self-Directed IRAs to spread goodwill by investing in businesses and entrepreneurs in and around their communities whose success generates a positive impact. It could be as simple as investing a mere $100 in a crowdfunding opportunity that helps a local entrepreneur open a cool new coffee shop where residents congregate to get their morning caffeine fix before starting their workday, to purchasing a rental home in a distressed neighborhood that provides shelter for a family in need.

Other socially responsible investment opportunities may include investing in a food co-op that provides healthy organic fruits and vegetables to neighborhood children, or a local clothing store that stocks its shelves with eco-friendly garments. Rocket Dollar investors also can use their retirement funds to issue direct promissory notes to people they know whose causes they believe in.

Rather than blindly invest retirement money into faceless stocks, bonds, or mutual funds that provide the greatest benefit to Fortune 500 companies located in the country’s large financial centers, investors can find alternative on-the-ground investments they are connected to either personally or geographically.

Rocket Dollar retirement investors can find socially responsible investment opportunities through sites such as Kickstarter, Fundly, and StartSomeGood. They also can find investment opportunities closer to home by networking with local business people about potential impact investment opportunities.

At its core, retirement investing is intended to grow a nest egg for a rosy financial future. But by using retirement dollars to invest in assets that align with their values and beliefs, Rocket Dollar account holders are using their funds to spread goodwill and create a positive impact throughout their hometowns.

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