Purpose
Most financial professionals eulogising over the great investors of the 20th Century will eventually boil down any one strategy to simple pragmatism. Long-termism, when it comes to orientation, direction, and compounding, focuses on the likelihood of return through the strength of the assets, not on meaning or sentiment. Yet by 2030, $80 Trillion will have flooded into the ESG sector, which, excluding the marquee technology plays, suggests that maybe investors do care about more than returns, maybe it’s a healthy mix of both returns and purpose? That in itself would be considered a contrarian or even naive view these days, citing greenwashing, funds pivoting, and following the returns, such as the $3 billion BlackRock invested in Fossil Fuels in 2025, but basic human psychology suggests it’s rarely one or the other. Money is never just money; it is a proxy for safety, status, identity, and values. When people invest, they aren’t only allocating capital, they are expressing beliefs about the future and, often unconsciously, about themselves.
If investors truly didn’t care what their money was doing, only what it earned, the story would be simple. Risk-adjusted returns would dominate every decision, and anything beyond price, growth, and volatility would be noise. But that world doesn’t exist. Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable, and few people enjoy profiting from outcomes that clash with their values, even if the spreadsheet looks kinda nice. So, what are we saying here? That was a heck of a long introduction without even mentioning the point of all this? Well, perhaps the question of “what is my money actually doing? is one that needs to be asked around the IFISA.
When you invest through an IFISA, your capital doesn’t disappear into abstract markets or distant indices. It attempts to provide healthy returns, as any product does, but it also supports UK businesses seeking finance to grow, operate, and create value for the greater good. This direct connection between investor and enterprise is one of the defining features of IFISA investing. It allows individuals to play an active role in supporting the domestic economy, helping British companies thrive while keeping capital working closer to home. For investors who value visibility and purpose, this approach can feel more grounded than traditional market exposure. This is not an ESG investment, but at a psychological level, ESG investing and IFISAs that support UK businesses building homes appeal to a similar instinct, though they express it in different ways.
ESG often works through abstraction. Investors are told their capital is aligned with broad ideas of sustainability, fairness, and responsibility, usually filtered through scores, frameworks, and global narratives. This creates moral reassurance at scale, but also distance. The impact is real in principle, yet hard to visualise. Psychologically, this makes ESG easy to adopt without forcing investors to confront trade-offs too directly. It can feel like “doing good” without changing behaviour. IFISAs, which fund UK businesses to build homes, operate at the opposite end of the spectrum. The link between capital and outcome is concrete. Investors can picture houses being built, jobs being created, and communities expanding. This tangibility matters. Research shows people feel more emotionally engaged and more responsible when outcomes are visible and local. Supporting housing also taps into deep social values around stability, shelter, and contribution, rather than abstract global metrics. Perhaps that’s what we are saying here: there is a tangibility to what we are doing here, here are your returns, there are some houses, there is a clear input and output that appeals to investors, and for those who say it doesn’t, there are 80 trillion reasons to suggest otherwise.
For years, investing has often meant exposure to distant markets, complex instruments, and constant volatility driven by global headlines. While these approaches suit some, a growing number of people, particularly experienced and higher-earning investors, are seeking something different, an investment strategy that combines tax efficiency, transparency, and real-world impact. This is where the Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) is steadily gaining attention. At Invest&Fund, the IFISA allows investors to use their ISA allowance to fund real British businesses, while keeping any returns earned free from income tax and capital gains tax. Modern investing is increasingly shaped by headlines, social media, and short-term thinking. IFISA investing offers a quieter alternative. With fewer distractions and clearer terms, investors can focus on long-term objectives rather than reacting to daily news cycles. For many, this calmer approach is not just preferable, it’s more effective. IFISA investors help bridge this gap by providing capital to businesses that do not meet mainstream lending criteria. In return, investors gain exposure to opportunities unavailable in public markets, while businesses receive the finance they need to grow. A well-run IFISA platform like Invest&Fund prioritises transparency, education, and realistic expectations. Investors are encouraged to understand potential outcomes and choose opportunities aligned with their own financial circumstances.
Backing up the real-world positive impact are the core ingredients of any traditional investment strategy: a long-term outlook, with orientation, direction, and compounding. Many IFISA opportunities have historically targeted returns of around 7% before tax across diversified portfolios of UK business lending. By contrast, widely available cash and fixed-income products in the UK in 2026 offer materially lower net returns once higher-rate tax is applied: Easy-access and fixed-term savings accounts currently pay approximately 4.2%–4.5% AER. For a higher-rate taxpayer paying 40% tax on interest outside an ISA, this reduces the effective return to around 2.5%–2.7% after tax.
Perhaps the contrast we have outlined in this thought exercise exposes an important truth: many investors don’t just want ethical alignment; they want narrative clarity. ESG offers moral framing; IFISAs offer causal clarity. One reassures identity, the other satisfies purpose.
Neither approach escapes the desire for returns. But IFISAs reveal that when impact is understandable and close to home, caring about what your money does becomes less performative and more psychologically real.
Invest & Fund has returned over £330 million of capital and interest to lenders with zero losses, showing the rigour that governs our business.
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