For This Family, Ethical Investing Starts at Home.
Bella and Michael, took time out from their busy schedule to chat about why they invest with UC Invest. Bella is a CPA with a deep understanding of finance while Michael works in public relations. They have two school-age children.
What drew you to UC Invest in the first place?
Bella: We were initially attracted by their interest rates which were very competitive.
We then heard some other clients talk about the personal service. When you call, you’re guaranteed to speak to the same one or two people and that’s just unheard of these days with any business. So that real personal service impressed us, and it makes a massive difference.
Michael: I agree. I think the service is outstanding. I also like the idea that not only are we personally benefiting from being with UC Invest but the community as a whole is also better off.
What about once you scratched beneath the surface? What did you discover?
Bella: We love their commitment towards ethical investing, both environmentally and socially.; UC Invest won’t invest in companies that are detrimental to our society or the planet. It’s a really big deal for both of us.
Michael: Yep, 100 per cent. For me, ethical investing means investing in businesses that are not only profitable but support a sustainable earth. It’s really important for us to feel good about the money that we’re investing and to do so with a company that has high ethical standards.
Bella: We want to sleep at night knowing our money’s not going to companies that are detracting from our planet and our people.
What else do you like about UC Invest?
Michael: They contribute to the Uniting Church and Uniting Care as well so improving community wellbeing is a constant focus. They provide an amazing service helping vulnerable people, which is something we both care about.
Bella: That community feel and how they give back to society is so important to us. We have young children, and we both work full-time so we’re quite busy. It’s hard for us to get out and do the community work that we would like to do. This is one way that we know whereby purely investing our funds with UC Invest, we’re making a positive impact on our society and helping those in need in our community.
Michael: And we’re getting a good return on our investment as well, so it’s a real win-win.
Bella: We don’t want our money or our children’s money going towards gambling or fossil fuels. When they grow up, we want our planet to be healthy and people who need help to be cared for.
How else do your children benefit from investing with UC Invest?
Bella: When we started with UC Invest, it was just a place to put our kids’ birthday and Christmas money. But over the last four years we’ve been able to teach them the importance of saving and show them, especially our 13-year-old daughter, how much she’s earned. She’s learning from a very young age that she can put money aside and it does the work for her. I think that’s a very important lesson to learn early in life. So, they’re already thinking about the things that they want to do when they get older like go to university, buy a car, save for a house, things like that.
Michael: There’s the community side of things too. Our daughter does a fair bit of charity work through school, so she understands the importance of that and she’s quite politically engaged – much more than I was at that age. So, it’s important for her to see individuals and entities trying to do something positive for the world.
What advice would you give to someone who asked you about UC Invest?
Bella: We would absolutely recommend UC Invest to others. The market rates are fabulous but I think the thing that stands out above all else is the personal
service. The warmth and care you get from the staff is incredible, so that, paired with their ethical investing makes it a no-brainer for us.
Michael: And at this stage of our lives where we’ve got a mortgage and school-aged children it’s the ideal time to make our money work for us to ensure that we can help set our kids up.
Bella: We don’t want to be working forever either. So even though it may seem young to start thinking about these things, we really want to set ourselves up so that we can retire with quite a bit of life ahead of us and enough money to fund the lifestyle we want.
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