Compassionate Investing

I have gotten away from creating new posts on this blog due to a load of work, but also a lack of comments from any readers. It is difficult to know if anyone is actually reading these posts which I hope are valuable, but take time and thus some feedback would be appreciated to determine if these posts add value for those looking for both financial planning and professional investment advice. I will continue to post until the end of this year and then see where we stand.

Seeking Alpha recently published an article extracted from my newsletter where I discuss whether or not investors should consider compassion when they design their investment strategy for 2011. This is certainly not covered in any real way by the bible of strategic investing "The Intelligent Investor" written many years ago by Benjamin Graham. This certainly puts "Value" investing in a different light as it assigns intrinsic value to "Compassionate Investing", by investing in companies that better the human condition and/or improve the environment. Less value is associated with investing in things that only make or lose money and give no thought to the damage that is done to investors, the environment, countries, or society.

I am not proposing that compassionate investors only invest in social funds or in companies that improve the environment or human condition, but I am saying that compassionate investing can be made a part of a successful investment strategy and that we should consider the damage that we do when we invest in things that do more harm then good. Perhaps I should write a book called the "Compassionate Investor" to describe in more detail how this can be done without sacrificing investment returns and how investors can become more successful in their lives and meeting their financial objectives by doing so.