It's not hard to find articles about socially responsible investing, or SRI, in financial publications and even mainstream media these days.  The reason is that by the end of 2005, there was over $2.5 trillion invested using this approach in the United States.  Numbers that big are bound to attract some attention.   

So, just what is this investment approach and how does it apply to you?  Well, socially responsible investing is simply choosing to align your investment decisions with your personal moral beliefs.  The idea is that your money is not supporting activities that you are opposed to. 

Mutual fund investment has grown at an incredible rate in the past few years, with total investments over $12.3 trillion at the end of September 2007.  That's an increase of 77% since the year 2000.  The number of households in our country owning a mutual fund increased by 6.8% to almost 51 million in that time as well. 

Why the growth in mutual fund investing?  Well, for the most part the benefits are pretty straightforward.  First of all, you get exposure to professional money management so qualified individuals are evaluating companies and not you.  Secondly, you get diversification.  What this means is that your risk is lower because you own many stocks instead of just a few.  If one performs poorly, your exposure is less because it's only one of the many stocks you own. Typically, this diversification is available only to investor's with large sums of money to invest.  Mutual funds provide that for the average investor because everyone's money is pooled to make purchases. Lastly, when you own shares of a mutual fund, your money is still liquid, meaning you can convert it to cash quickly if you need it. 

We work; we earn a wage; we pay our bills.  What we have left over, we can give to charity or we can invest — planning for our future and that of our children.  Often when we invest, we use…

Have you ever thought about how many Catholics are in this country?  You might be surprised to know that the number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 million!  Yes, its true - Catholics make up almost 25% of the…