No Comment, maybe just one

Recently I had a convo with a brother that I hadn't spoken to in about a year. As we proceeded to catch up on the prior years events we came to the subject of money and buying property (what us all grown up hip hop heads are doing now days). I had bought my apartment last year and he had purchased a house and was looking forward to the appreciation of his property as a future asset. I brought up creating an investment portfolio and he said that his faith didn't allow him to do that. That struck me kinda funny but I refrained from commenting because that kind of statement required some thought prior to an exchange and of course to respect how other people do life. I admit all I could think of was to ask if he belonged to the tabernacle of the broke and have nothin but I let it slide. Aight now for my own edification, I can try to figure out where the brother is coming from with that one. First, what is investing really? The part ownership of a company. Simply, one person or a group of people make money from something and give other people the opportunity to make money as well; the desired result is that the person or group make even more money. Why do people invest? To share in a company's profits and increase monetary gain. When you buy a big mac at McDonald's what are you doing, beside killing yourself? Are you a) investing in the company or b) contributing to the company's success as an investment? When you buy that big mac are you thinking morally? I would imagine that the premise of being restricted by faith is based on moral implication regarding what kind of company you are helping to have success for example are you thinking about whether or not they have high standards for the care of the employees, where the products come from, if they recycle, where the meat comes from and how the animals are treated, how the food is prepared, what chemicals are used in the preparation and enhancement of the food, what effect the food has on the consumer especially when supersized. If you determine that everything is good and the company is worth patronizing how could it then be against your faith to also purchase shares of its stock. Join in, the company is benefiting from its successful secure of a few of your dollars, the dollars you spend on the big mac, so by being both a consumer and an investor you also benfit in more ways. What is the dilemma (rhetorical). By the way, at the time of this post Mc Donald's Corp, ticker symbol MCD on the NY stock exchange, closed at $34.70 a share, up +0.16 from the previous days close gaining +0.46% there was no change in after hours trading. The system of corporations and investing is in place and is a source of making money. When a company such as Google can start with little to nothing and become worth 1.5 billion dollars since its initial public offering, joining the S&P index thereby cementing its blue chip status in just 4 years with a single share of the company's stock climbing from $85 to the recent 52 week high of $474 and you, searching the internet regularly, benefiting from its availability to help you search at no charge, happen to by default, view all of the targeted advertisements that make the company worth over a billion dollars; why not own part of it and really benefit. Well I think the faith angle is synonymous with, 'I don't know nothin about that'. Is there a risk of feeling as if your faith is transferred to worshiping money, or does the greed and ruthlessness of the corporate world overshadow the basics of owning parts of longstanding strong companies or new innovative companies that provide products services and income. Does anyone trace the origin of their dollars to make sure that all good comes of every dollar they earn or spend? You are more apt to staying on the good side of "faith" if you research good investments and buy the company's products and shares of its stock. I would have some of my dollars returning to me and bringing with them a few faithful friends rather than letting them go out into the world and randomly ending up who knows where doing who knows what. It could be another year before I have the opportunity to talk with that brother again but my first and probably only question to that intelligent school teacher will be, does your benefit package include a 401k? Until then, to the brother who's faith prevents him from making money on the things he spends money on.. keep the faith, I'll take the dividends. it'sall'v