Jason English
There’s Money in Vice
by Jason English - March 6, 2007 - 3:00 PM

I don’t know much about investing, which is why I’ll never own an airplane. But I found a mutual fund that intrigues me.

vicefund.gifThe Vice Fund, managed by 32-year-old Charles Norton, invests solely in companies that satisfy vices. Companies like Heineken, Diageo, Wynn Resorts and Altria (formerly Philip Morris). Besides smoking, drinking and gambling, the Vice Fund also invests in Aerospace & Defense. “Maybe in a perfect world these industries wouldn’t need to exist,” their website says about Defense contractors. “But until that perfect world does exist, we want to own these stocks.”

Since September 2005, the Vice Fund (25.2% return) has outperformed both the S&P 500 (18.8%) and the Calvert Social Index (14.3%), which is Vice’s total opposite.

According to the Vice Fund’s website, the industries in which it invests are “nearly recession-proof.” I suppose this is because during any economic downturn, people like to drink, smoke, gamble and start wars.

[Via Paul B. Brown and The New York Times.]

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Comments (4)

  1. My husband and I invested in the Vice Fund when it opened. Next to our urban California house, it’s been our best financial investment!

    posted by cjbickford on 3-6-2007 at 8:38 pm

  2. Where do you think the term “Daddy Warbucks” comes from, besides “Little Orphan Anne”?

    “Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime
    oublié, parce qu’ il a été proprement fait.”
    – Honoré de Balzac “Le Père Goriot”

    posted by Nat on 3-14-2007 at 7:20 am

  3. IT MAKES SENSE. EVEN DURRING THE DEPRESSION, DURING WORLD WARS 1 & 2 AND CURRENTLY, PEOPLE STILL GOT DRUNK, SMOKED, AND GAMBLED. THERE ARE A LOT OF INDUSTRIES THAT BENEFIT FROM THESE VICES. SOME EVEN HAVE A GREAT “INSURANCE POLICY” AS THEY ARE FUNDED IN SEVERAL WAYS, BY THE US. GOVERNMENT, SUCH AS HOSPITALS AS WELL AS OTHER BUSINESS THAT CATERS TO THE AFFECTS OF THESE VICES. YOU KNOW, REHAB, MEDICATIONS, ETC….

    posted by JOHN BROWN on 3-18-2007 at 2:33 pm

  4. I DOUBT WE WILL EVER OBTAIN THE UTOPIA AS SEEN ON STAR TREK TNG, BUT EVEN THERE VICES EXIST. I DOUBT WE WILL EVER BE FREE OF VICES.

    posted by HIQUE IQUEMAN on 3-20-2007 at 12:22 pm

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