Claude Walker

But when it comes down to it for me, I couldn't invest in it because I didn't have an affinity for that business and I wouldn't have liked it very much.

And it would have constantly made me feel bad to know that I owned that just because I really am against new coal mines.

So what would have happened is something would have happened when there was some slight wobble in that company, when something went slightly wrong or was not as good as I thought.

I would have probably instantly sold those shares anyway because I've always been looking for an excuse not to own them.

So I just didn't have the right psychology and DNA to actually be the person that bought that shares, hold those shares and did really well out of it.

So it becomes a little bit moot at that point about the whole idea.

You can say, hey, but Claude, you could have bought the shares and sold them for profit and given to charity.

Like, yeah, hypothetically, but realistically what would have happened is I would have just bought the stock,

felt bad, probably made a little bit of money, sold, and maybe repeated the process a bunch of times.

But that's why for me, sometimes it hurts, but sometimes I guess I just will steer clear of a company just like I previously would have steered clear of Woolworths because of their pokey machines.

Yeah.

Well, you can go the intellectual route and it gets really complicated, which is also fine.

Or you can just like, how does it feel?

How does it feel in my tummy?

If I went and told my friend who doesn't care about investing, but does care about trees, what I was doing, would I be embarrassed to tell them?

It's just, how does it feel?

And what I'm trying to get at is this is also how you potentially unlock the power of ethical investing is because that feeling

is the same feeling that you will need when you invest in a really good company that's doing well in the world, that is run by honest, competent people and is growing.

Part of the ingredient to make money out of that really good one that you found is to have the confidence to hold on to those winners.

And that's why I see ethical investing as leading into this idea of affinity