Buy Local, Invest Local, Bank Local: How to Do It

REconomy: Using Our Resources to Shift the Economy

Taking control of our money can be challenging, but it’s also empowering. On the REconomy: Buy Local, Bank Local, Invest Local page, we gave you a few ideas for things you can do personally, and some community-scale actions. Here’s how you can start to make the transition from Wall Street to Main Street — and from the money economy to the sharing economy — and who can help.

Individual Action is an Easy Way to Start

Where Is Your Money Now?

• Research your bank, and other banks to get a greater understanding of their impact in the community. A google check may reveal past problems or positive actions. For ideas about how the values of financial institutions might differ, see this article by Bankrate.
• Visit the Hennepin County Library  Morningstar Investment Research Center, in person, to research your mutual fund or retirement fund This normally expensive resource is available to you free as a library patron.
• Identify your bank-local options. Research self-directed IRAs to understand how you might get greater control over your retirement funds. Take a look at C Notes and Ours to Own, small dollar bond-like investments, and co-op investment networks.

Buy Local and Invest in Change

Now that you know where your money is located and what it’s doing, think about what you would like it to do. What goals are important to you?

• Food resilience?
• Energy independence?
• Thriving small businesses within walking distance?
• Affordable housing?
• Education and R&D to solve the problems we’ve been experiencing?

You can have an impact on all of these with your purchasing power, investing power, and donating power. You can transition your money.

• Bank Local: Switch your checking and savings account to a local bank.
• Buy Local: Commit to buying some things only from local businesses, especially if they are made by those businesses, not just sold by them. It’s particularly important that we support production activities to bring our supply chain back to the U.S. and back to our state and communities. If it makes sense to think in these terms, you could set a buy-local spending goal for a certain amount of your disposable income. Know that your decision to buy local means your dollars recirculate many more times in your community.
• Invest Local: Consider investing directly in local businesses through crowdfunding opportunities or Minnesota’s local business investment portal – MNVest. You could join a local investment group, like the NorthEast Investment Coop or the Co-op Investment Network (CoIN). If you believe, like many people who are making the transition, that it is vitally important that we financially support the change we need, consider “patient investing” — the slow money movement.  Slow Money Minnesota has started a Grow a Farmer grant fund but hopes to someday include direct loan opportunities for those who want to invest in protecting and growing family farms.
• Donate Local: The change we need to see is great. It may be that donating money is going to move the dial faster.

Broaden Your Reach to Places Most Severely Impacted by Climate Change

KIVA is a microlending organization that allows you to provide “loans” of as little as $25 to individuals and small group business owners in countries across the globe. Join the Transition Team and any loan you decide to make will be “credited” to the team so we can see how much impact we can have. You might choose to fund energy projects or women-owned businesses, or even education for girls. (Transition Twin Cities does not make any money from this referral. The “team” is for reporting purposes only.)

The Sharing Economy: Leave Cash Behind

The sharing economy is an equally valid way to get your needs met. Your first foray into sharing can be as simple as doing a meal exchange with a neighbor once a week, or a babysitting exchange once a month. You could house-sit instead of paying rent, or provide household help in exchange for rent. You could participate in more formal sharing network:

• Time banking: In the Twin Cities, Hour Dollars facilitates the exchange of time and services in St. Paul. There are a few other time banks in Minnesota (for example, one in the St. Croix Valley). See HourWorld or TimeBanks USA.
• Tool sharing libraries are located in NE Minneapolis and midtown St. Paul
• Seed sharing libraries are popping up across the cities. Check out the Como Community Seed Library and the West Side Seed Library.
• Couchsurfing is a fun and educational way to travel, staying in someone’s home for free — and inviting travelers to stay with you.
• Maker spaces and cooperative work spaces are in the cities and some suburbs (like CoCreatz on University and Raymond, started by folks from Transition ASAP.

Buy Local, Invest Local: Who Can Help?

This list may not be complete. If there are organizations or companies you would like to see added, please email the webmaster to request consideration for inclusion. Resources found on this website are for informational purposes only and listing does not constitute endorsement. Transition Twin Cities does not receive any financial support from companies listed here.

Economy Podcast Resources

Shift Your Investments