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You can save the planet while saving for your future

You can save the planet while saving for your future
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Today, it is important for everyone to do what they can to make the world a better place. For consumers, this often entails purchasing organic groceries, buying items that are made of recycled materials, and carpooling. That said, consumers often are hard pressed to find financial institutions that share the same socially conscious mindset as they do.

Consider this. Rainforest Action Network reports that in 2018, the world’s largest financial institutions lent out hundreds of billions of dollars to fossil fuel related projects. Although it might sometimes seem like consumers have to accept this as the status quo, Aspiration proves otherwise.

Aspiration is a financial institution that provides cash management services that are different by design. They put account holders first and provide a variety of solutions that align with their clients' socially conscious mindsets. For starters, Aspiration assures account holders that their deposits will not be used to fund fossil fuel exploration or production, private prison facilities, or firearm manufacturers.

They also are built on a foundation of fairness. The Aspiration Spend & Save™ account provides customers with a secure location to store their funds, without being dinged with excessive fees. The "Pay What Is Fair" model means customers can choose their monthly account service fee, even if it is zero. Of the proceeds collected from monthly fees, Aspiration pledges to donate 10% to charity.

It is worth noting that Aspiration also commits to “all extra services provided at cost,” meaning they only charge account holders what it costs to provide the extra service, and nothing more. Additionally, Aspiration does not charge fees for overdrafts, check deposits, inactive accounts, or debit cards.

Going beyond their role as a financial institution, Aspiration also helps consumers live a socially conscious lifestyle with a variety of offerings. For example, Aspiration Planet Protection™ automatically offsets carbon dioxide emissions from customers by automatically purchasing carbon credits based on fuel purchases each month.

The Aspiration Impact Management (AIM) score also helps consumers make informed purchasing decisions by evaluating the impact of companies in our society. AIM scores are broken down into two parts: people and planet.

Planet scores are centered on metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, and renewable energy use. The people component of AIM scores reflects company metrics such as employee pay, access to healthcare, and workforce diversity.

Aspiration also assigns AIM scores to each user, so that they can get an idea of their impact on the world.

Finally, Aspiration also rewards account holders for living a socially conscious lifestyle. The Aspiration Conscience Coalition™ provides Spend & Save account holders with up to 10% cash back when shopping at mission-conscious merchants such as TOMS, Warby Parker, and Blue Apron.

Although Aspiration is not as widely known as many traditional financial institutions, they have amassed over one million customers since being founded in 2013. Deposits in Aspiration Spend & Save accounts also are FDIC insured, with up to $2.46 million per depositor*.

If you are ready to start saving green while also helping the planet, sign up for an Aspiration account today.

*Deposits are FDIC-insured up to $2.46 million per depositor by being swept to FDIC Member Institutions. Visit fdic.gov. Aspiration’s Program Banks.