A History of Black Wealth

African Americans in 1921 had a multimillionaire business corridor that housed a bank, law firms, barbershops, car dealerships, doctors offices, schools, beauty salons, meat shops, a movie theater, and more! If you were black you didn’t have to leave your community for anything. Today that concept is totally reversed.

Black Wall Street was growing at such a rapid pace that the world wanted to do business with them. As a black community we still, no doubt have that potential, but today we worry about the name tag in our clothes instead of the the name of that company stock we could be investing in.

They say that success leaves clues. Black Wall Street has left us such a blue print on how to build true generational wealth, that’s it’s no way we should ignore it.

black-wall-street

Black History Facts 365,  http://blackhistorymonth2014.com/1218/black-wall-street-the-blue-print-to-wealth/

 

How To Create Wealth Again in African American Communities

Creative Approaches to Personal Wealth was the topic of last weeks’, There’s Money Out There, Lets Help You Get It broadcast on WURD 900 AM.

Our guests,  Dr. Pamela Jolly Founder and CEO of Torch Enterprises and Reggie Kyle CEO of E-bitda & Pay Yourself First shared their insights on wealth creation & legacy wealth in the African American community.

The show was jammed packed with essential information on how to build legacy wealth. In case you missed it, here are the most significant pointers.

Host Calvin Tucker, sharing 7 pointers to help you in your wealth creation journey:

  1. Save first, spend last.
  2. Plan a budget. Whether it is daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, the most important aspect is sticking with it.
  3. Learn how to live well below your means.
  4. Stay out of debt.
  5. Set shopping limits.
  6. Set goals.
  7. Talk to professionals. Whether it is on a formal basis such as setting appointments with professionals or talking informally to members of your community with financial knowledge.

Legacy Wealth Creation

Dr. Pamela JollyDr. Pamela Jolly lead our discussion by defining legacy wealth and the steps needed to expand yours’ today.

 

First, Dr. Jolly highlighted the extent of the lack of wealth in the African American community. She described how 95 percent of the African-American community must borrow for a $1,000 emergency. The latter emphasizes the need within the African American community to create legacy wealth in which generations can build upon wealth creation from ancestors which then can be passed on to help build inter-generational wealth.

 

Legacy wealth is built upon five types of capital

Dr. Jolly defines wealth as a “journey” built upon a “series of decisions” that” extend across generations”. Legacy wealth is built upon five types of capital: social, cultural, intellectual, spiritual, and financial.

wealth disparity in African American Community

Dr. Jolly noted that the first step toward growing legacy wealth is based upon family financial decisions. Every day families make decisions to either grow, expand, or lose money. The first key to wealth creation is consistency in income.

Wealth creation is a culture and set of consistent practices. These practices revolve around the implementation of a plan. Wealth creation is a group process which should leverage other family members and community members in order to build insights and support.

One of the largest obstacles in wealth creation in the African American community is the lack of organization. Organization is key to education, partnerships building, and community consensus. Dr. Jolly wrote the strategic assessment to rebuild New Orleans post-Katrina. In this experience, she discovered that a lack of money was not the fundamental problem in economically rebuilding neighborhoods, but a lack of community organization, it was being in order, working together and being consistent. Our guests described the importance of forging partnerships to create synergy, fill in informational gaps and collect resources.

Currently, the African-American community represents a $ 1.1 trillion buying power but only earns $984 billion. This phenomenon highlights a common practice in which many folks leverage tomorrow to live today.

Legacy wealth takes three generations to build and one generation to lose.

In the words of Dr. Jolly, “Build, grow, expand the legacy you inherited”.