I hate the whole publicly traded model of companies. I hate capitalism. But have to engage in trading stocks (I mostly do Mutual Funds and a small quantity of direct stocks) so that my money doesn’t lose value by sitting in a bank or cash.
Same thing with credit cards, don’t like taking loans and getting marked on a centralised list for that but it’s a safer option than using your own money.
Fortunately I don’t do crypto so that’s a plus.
Yes, it sucks, but no way around it if you ever want to be able to retire. My employer pays double my pension contributions, so I’ve got that accumulating, and when I have enough in the pot I’ll transfer it to a private pension and invest it myself as ethically as I can.
Unfortunately there is a tonne of greenwashing and lip service paid to ESG requirements, together with the high fees and lower returns means they aren’t really worth it. Plus in a fund, yeah you get diversity, but no discretion if you want to participate in boycotts, and on a macro scale it makes fund managers too powerful.
But also no-one take advice from me I am literally still waiting until I have enough to minimise the fees before managing my own pension.
Hot take: trying to make your 401k investments “ethical” is exactly the same as voting for Biden because he’s the lesser evil.