I am a young man who has recently reached a point of financial stability. I'm starting to think about long-term plans which may one day buy a home, or provide for myself in old age.
This raises the question of savings and investments, which causes me some ethical concerns.
I don't have an issue with investment in its basic form. Providing people money to help them do business, allowing it to grow and gaining interest in gratitude is not an issue for me.
The problem comes when we realise that a lot of the most financially successful businesses succeed due to addiction in their customers. Alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, high interest financial services, and a number of others all rely on customers becoming dependent, unable to keep from buying their services. Because of this dependency, a lot of money is made in ethically questionable businesses, and professional investors (whose job is only to make as much money as possible) will choose to put money into these businesses.
The alternative would be to look in to investing myself. Although without some good practical knowledge, this would resemble gambling, throwing my money at whatever business takes my fancy, hoping for the best.
Being concerned about ethics, how can I go about investments and/or savings? Are there businesses which professionally invest ethically?