'Trust, but verify' to make it stick

You've done the hard work. One more simple step will make sure all that effort isn't undone by a sneaky change.

Money moves done? You little ripper!

(For the benefit of any non-Aussies reading this: that’s a compliment.)

This is the best part of money moves:

Do it once*, do it right, reap the rewards.

‘But Lacey, why is there an asterisk after ‘once’?’

Dear reader, I have a confession. It’s because ‘once’ is technically a whiff of a shadow of a minor untruth.

To be clear, you do the heavy lifting once. What you’ve done so far is the biggest investment of time you’re likely to need.

But nothing - I repeat nothing - is ever really set and forget. You want to certain the robust financial structure you’ve built doesn’t start shifting. You have to check, just to be sure, as the only certainty is change.

This is one of those Risk Management 101 things. We never just rely on things staying put. We make sure they do. It’s sometimes called the ‘trust and verify’ approach.

Because…

Humans are gonna human

The institutions you’ve chosen aren’t funding fossil fuel companies in part because the organisation’s leaders have set the standard.

But leaders change.

As do governments, laws, and everything else except death and taxes (though I hear there are people trying to escape death.)

The institutions you’ve picked might carry on the same way for a year, a decade or a century.

Or they might change their strategy tomorrow.

And they don’t always do a great job of telling customers about it proactively.

I mean, sure - they’ll (probably) tell you.

But it might be buried in an email that ends up in your junk folder, or wrapped in such sophisticated marketing speak you don’t realise they just said ‘Hey, we’ve changed our minds on the whole investing in fossil fuels thing. We’re gonna start doing it.’

So you have to do the next best thing:

Check it’s still all good

Basically, you need to perform the monetary equivalent of a parent supervising their seven-year-old.

You know the drill: occasionally popping your head round the corner to visually verify your darling angel isn’t creating a fort using family heirlooms, or leaving the bath running till it overflows, or encouraging native birds into the kitchen to dine on scraps.

A touch of light surveillance, if you will.

I recommend doing this once a year.

I also recommend popping it in whatever calendar you use, so it doesn’t get missed.

What to check

Essentially, you’re going to repeat the Audit step.

First, check whether anything’s changed with your bank/s:

• Has their status changed on Market Forces?

• If it’s a big bank or overseas, are there updated figures on Banking on Climate Chaos?

Then, check whether your chosen super fund’s investment mix holdings are still as you expected them to be:

• If using an electronic calendar, saving the link to the holdings download is an excellent shortcut.

Finally, it’s time to check those shares:

• Check the holdings of any index funds especially. Again, saving the links to the downloads pages in the calendar reminder is a great timesaver.

• If you added new shares to your portfolio, give ‘em a quick once-over to make sure no fossil fuels slipped past your radar.

Did you find a change?

With any luck, you’ll do all these checks to find everything is hunky-dory.

You’ll find your money remains be safely separated from supporting fossil fuels, and you can rest assured you’ve done your bit.

But if all is not well in Audit Land and the check reveals fossil fuels in your banking, super and/or shares, then it’s onto Plan again.

You can repeat the process from Plan for whichever area needs it: Prepping for Plan, Banks, Super, Shares.

Now the important bit:

Repeat this once a year

Add the calendar reminder again for next year, and the year after that, and… you get my drift.

This simple annual check-up is the stitch in time that’ll save you many headaches in the long run if you leave the check for a decade or two.

Okay, we are suuuuuper close to the end now!

Just the final step to go, Explore. And it’s the most fun, I reckon.

See you there!