- Not making any changes to my portfolio, yet
- No tax refund for me this year
My latest portfolio review comes to you later than planned due to an update to As You Sow’s Invest Your Values sustainability grades data at the beginning of 2026. As of January 2, 2026, my portfolio was up 10.5% since inception in March 2022.
As of March 2026, only one of my sustainable exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings is cause for alarm: The Stance Sustainable Beta ETF (CHGX) has a military weapons grade of D. This would normally disqualify the ETF from my portfolio—especially in the current political environment—but I wasn’t able to find a suitable replacement.
I’ll get into my search process in the next section if you’re interested, but if not here’s the high-level info:
- The rest of my ETFs are in good standing with grades of A or B for fossil fuels, deforestation, civilian firearms, the prison industrial complex, military weapons and tobacco
- With the upgrade, As You Sow added more nuance to their criteria
- The gender equality grade has been expanded to include three more important categories for the investments to be graded by: diversity disclosures, racial justice and LGBTQ+ equity 🏳️🌈
- All my ETFs have values of N/A for gender equality and the new categories, so I’ll check on these midyear during my next portfolio review
The hunt for a replacement ETF
I started my search for a new ETF to add to my portfolio where I usually do, by setting the As You Sow search criteria to fossil fuel free funds with grades of B or higher for all categories. I’ve seen holdings of mine with grades of C slip to D or F too quickly, so I’m trying to avoid this instead of settling for less with my investments. It should also keep my portfolio’s turnover low, since my goal is to invest for the long term and constantly removing and adding holdings can eat into my performance over time.
Contenders
1. First Trust Water ETF (FIW)
Disqualifiers:
- Expense ratio of 0.51%, grade of C, getting close to my threshold of 0.60%
- AAII short-term return grades of F and long-term return grades of D
2. Fidelity Electric Vehicles and Future Transportation ETF (FDRV)
Disqualifiers:
- High total risk index of 2.31
- Part of the global large-stock growth international equity category; not quite a replacement for Stance Sustainable Beta, a large blend U.S. equity ETF
These two funds were my top contenders for a replacement, but they didn’t quite fit what I was looking for. AAII taught me to weigh the risk I’m taking by investing in a holding versus the reward I get from it. That’s why the expense ratio—how much the holding costs me to keep in my portfolio—and the total risk index—which measures how volatile the holding’s returns are related to all ETFs—are the main disqualifiers of these funds.
It’s been difficult to find sustainable investments that aren’t expensive or volatile, but I’ve learned my lesson that it’s better to wait until the right investment fits all my criteria. Despite Stance Sustainable Beta’s military weapons grade, it is performing well in my portfolio. To quote my former coworker AAII financial analyst Derek Hageman, I won’t “make changes for change’s sake.” Instead, I’ll keep an eye on Stance Sustainable Beta’s military weapons grade and if it doesn’t improve by midyear, I’ll be looking for another sustainable contender for my portfolio.
A refund-less tax year
For the first year in my adult working life, I did not get a tax refund from the government. I rarely get anything from the state of Illinois, but usually someone can throw me a bone from the federal level. One of the main reasons I had to pay was the additional income I made from my petsitting venture. It’s the cost of hanging out with all my animal friends, and it’s definitely worth every penny!
Entering this info into Cash App Taxes was easier than I thought it would be. I was able to fill out the amount of additional income I acquired and deduct the amount I paid for transportation to and from the houses where I was petsitting—plus some other expenses, like lint rollers 😉. I’ll be keeping closer track of these expenses throughout the year so I don’t have to do all this math at once, because that was not the fun part.
Last year, I spent the most amount of time with my orange buddy Tony. We are now even more attached than we used to be and his mom reports when he misses me 🥲. I’m looking forward to spending more time with all my animal friends this year!
Read more about my sustainable investing strategy:
Investing in Sustainable Gender Equality in 2025
Adding a New Climate Leader and Evaluating My Net Worth
Midyear Portfolio Review and Finding an ESG Benchmark
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