Impact Investing with Jean Case

Hello Martinis and Your Money Listeners! No matter what financial state you start in with us at The Financial Gym, at some point, we like to see all of our clients graduate to investing. To give a Gym analogy to investing, I like to think of investing as taking your money off the sofa and putting it on the treadmill to make it work harder for you. I always say that we work hard for every dollar that we make and when we invest our money, we’re asking our money to work hard for us in return.

A common theme that we see with a number of our clients is a desire to invest in companies that are socially impactful, whether it’s the way they manage employees to the way they navigate the environment, there’s a number of ways that companies can be considered impact companies; however, it’s often hard to truly decipher the right companies and the best ways to invest in them.

So joining me today is Jean Case, CEO of Case Impact Network to share with us why she thinks impact investing makes sense, how you can participate and what her company is doing to make it easier for us to get involved with impact investing. And now here’s Jean. 


What are we drinking?

Jean - Lime LaCroix  
Shannon - Black Cherry Schweppes

Podcast Notes

  • Jean has been an impact investor before there was a term for it. 

  • She was part of the internet revolution working for a number of startups and ended up at one that was to become AOL. In the 90’s, it was the best performing stock of the decade and the first company to go public. She helped make that happen. 

  • Younger investors really care about socially responsible investing and using their capital to make a difference in the causes they care about. Shannon has been this in the last five years with her own clients as well. 

  • You CAN invest with your conscience and still make money. There is overwhelming data that these funds that were once seen as just a social movement are very good business.

  • You don’t have to settle for just a financial return and the younger crowd has the wisdom and sees that. 

  • At National Geographic, Jean explains how they wanted to demonstrate this and allocated a portion of the endowment into very transparent impact investing. It outperformed in it’s asset class in a short period of time. 

HOW TO GET STARTED: 

  • Investing is like taking your money off the sofa and putting it on the treadmill. 

  • Shannon loves the Nike approach when it comes to investing: JUST DO IT

  • You don’t need to know everything to get started. It’s about empowering young people to feel like owners and creators. 

  • Let urgency conquer fear. There’s no better time to get started. 

  • Start investing with an amount of money you feel comfortable with or what your budget allows. You don’t have to be rich to get started. Think of it as the game of double dutch, jump in there when you can!

  • You learn the most by doing it. Don’t be afraid to fail. We learn from our failures and every financial mistake is fixable. 

HOW DO INVEST WITH YOUR VALUES 

  • You should care the most and understand what you’re investing in. 

  • There’s more power in the hands of the individual investor today. You can really get a lot of data on who is greenwashing and who is actually delivering. 

  • If you’re working with someone who is managing your funds, ASK QUESTIONS. Don’t be afraid of looking foolish. This person is managing YOUR money and should take the time to answer all the questions you have. 

  • There are funds out there advertised as ‘social impact funds’ or ESG’s, but there are no standards for these labels (at the time of this recording), They can be slapped on anything. 

  • People invest in a fund believing one thing, just to see it isn’t at all what they thought. 

  • Part of helping guide people is helping them understand what investing with their values looks like, which is where Jean’s newsletter was born. 

  • For What It’s Worth is a newsletter that goes out every Thursday and can be read in five minutes. The focus is to bring in young investors, cut the jargon and provide approachable tools and resources. She wants this to be a place for folks who want to get into the space but don’t know where to get started. 

  • There’s a group called Just Capitol, just one of many great resources included in the newsletter that does great work in this field. 

  • Sign up for the newsletter for more resources and links to explore. 

  • Most 401k’s don’t provide any capability for the employee to make sustainable choices, but there are some that do. See if your 401 offers these options.

  • If you leave a job, roll those retirement accounts into an IRA. 

TECH PLAYS A ROLE 

  • A lot of new tech platforms are gaining momentum and traction. 

  • Because of this, we have had more men get involved than women, so there is a gap. Some platforms have recognized this and started campaigns to get more women to invest. 

  • Women outperform men in the area of investing, but they often feel like they need to be experts before getting started.  They tend to worry about risk more. 

NOW’S THE TIME TO ASK FOR MORE 

  • Part of the plans we do at the gym include income goals. Sometimes people don’t know the size of the paycheck they need to make. 

  • A $5000 difference in starting salary can lead to potentially $1 million less over time. 

  • Every dollar you negotiate, the more security you have over the long term

  • Once clients are given income goals for trainers, we see them go get it. 

  • Don’t be afraid to negotiate, and research how much others are making in your field.

BEING A LEADER IN THESE TIMES 

  • Jean wrote a book called, Be Fearless and Shannon asks her about how to be a good leader during challenging times, as many leaders have been going through unique challenges the last 19 months. 



My biggest takeaway is that you can truly invest with your values and you don’t have to forgo profits. With some research and attention, impact investing can be a great way for you to make your money work harder for you while also supporting what matters most to you as far as corporate practices.    

Random Three Questions

  1. Something you’ve binged during the pandemic?

  2. What do you do to relax? 

  3. This was your last meal on earth, what is it going to be?

Connect with Jean & For What It’s Worth 

You can find Jean on Twitter @JeanCase and on Instagram @JeanCaseCF

You can connect with For What It’s Worth
Twitter @WhatItsWorth
Instagram @WhatItsWorth

Sign up for the For What It’s Worth Newsletter


If you want to read Jean’s best-selling book,
Be Fearless, you can do that HERE 

Resources / Recommendations Mentioned:
https://justcapital.com/
Watch the Trailer for The Rescue

Recommendations from the gin & tonic chat:
Fever Tree Tonic
Hendrick’s Solstice 

If you have any topics you would like for me to cover on this podcast or you’d like to get in the financially naked hotseat, I encourage you to email me to Shannon@fingyms.com or join the private Martinis and Your Money Facebook group and let me know what you want to hear. 

Are you wondering how you can start investing or maybe just stop living paycheck to paycheck so you can plan to start investing? Like I said at the top of the show at the Financial Gym, our goal is to help our clients reach a point where they can make their money work hard for them by investing and if you’d like help getting there, I hope you’ll reach out to my team at Financial Gym. Plus, Martinis and Your Money listeners get 15% off of Financial Gym memberships. So if you’re ready to get started, head over to or send friends to financialgym.com to get signed up today. 

Shannon McLayComment