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A crash course in changing the world.
Make money, save the world?
So a while back I came across the Microplace website. For those of you who don't know about it, it's a site similar to Kiva where you send money to microfinance institutions around the world. When the money is sent, it acts much like a bond, with you not being able to access the money for a certain period of time, but you earn interest on it quarterly. I've put some money into it, but unfortunately I'm not in the position to give any more, haha.
But my question is this:
How can we use instruments like this to amplify the impact our dollars have on the world?
For instance, most of the interest rates for these investments are relatively low, between 1 and 3 percent, but over time the interest snowballs and it can become quite a bit of money. Does it make sense to simply cycle money in the Microplace system (that is, keep both the initial investment and the interest reinvested in Microplace) or does it make more sense to keep it for a few years in Microplace, move it to a higher interest savings account for a while, and then back into Microplace?
If your goal is simply to build an investment that gives more and more back to the world, what's the best, most responsible way to do it?
Views: 30
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Comment by Timothy Jack Nash on March 5, 2010 at 8:44pm
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You need to balance out your expectations in terms of financial, social, and environmental return on investments. If you're goal is to maximize financial ROI, then microfinance isn't the place for your cash. But if you're happy with a 1-3% financial return and want to create financially sustainable communities, then it's the place to be!
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Comment by David Perner on March 5, 2010 at 8:48pm
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Very true, I should have said a financial ROI isn't really the goal here. I guess at least beating inflation though would be preferable, just so the money isn't losing any impact as time goes on. You seem to have more of a financial background than me, so how would you balance this problem?
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Comment by Peter Dukkha on March 9, 2010 at 4:11am
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I'm pretty interested in this as well. You were basically asking if keeping it in a micro-financing investment would have a larger benefit than putting it in a higher interest account and then depositing the larger amount into micro-finance later, right? Basically how to give the most with a finite amount of money?
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Comment by Cian Gregory Accuardi Shelley on March 9, 2010 at 4:21am
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i'd try both and see which works better.
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Comment by Nick Heyming on March 9, 2010 at 4:25am
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It may end up being a less risky investment than even old standbys like money market accounts and certificates of deposit... even those went negative ROI in the last couple years...
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I'm sure there's a mathematical way to check if you have the specific rates... but pulling the money out of micro at all would be pretty detrimental wouldn't it? Seems to me like having the smaller amount sooner and as consistently as possible would be better, but I don't know.
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I think originally my idea was to keep the interest earned in a savings account until the loan matured, and then reinvest the wh*** thing in another microloan. I did notice that lately some of the loan rates have been better than treasury notes, so it certainly made sense then, haha.
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