Many investors put money into mutual funds, which are a compilation of investments from a lot of different companies. They tend to be a favorite way to invest because they are highly diversified. However, it’s important to know what companies make up your mutual fund.

In some recent sloppy journalism, Washington Free Beacon accused Senator Warren of ‘investing in private prisons’ because she had some money invested in Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 fund (which includes private prison stock among its holdings). While the claim is technically true, this is inevitable for anyone buying into these types of funds, which is the significant majority of us.

According to Vanguard’s How America Saves 2019 report, 77% of retirement plan participants at Vanguard invested in a target-date fund like Warren. A Fidelity report in 2018 found that 68% of millennials have 100% of their assets invested in a target date fund. That means most of us are investing in private prisons and other questionable operations in our 401ks and other retirement accounts.