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I can't remember where I was the first time I heard that there were three principle ways to build wealth.
I can say I never learned it while I was in high school. I can also say that, even though I graduated with honors with a four-year business degree, I didn't learn it in college. In fact, I didn't learn it in my first 30+ years of existence. It wasn't until I was around 35 that I learned that the best methods for building wealth are: Real Estate, Investing and Entrepreneurship. 
So when I read a recent article that laid out just how far behind the average Black household is in regards to average wealth, I wasn't really surprised. Dismayed. But not surprised.
The fact is, we get taught how to get jobs our entire lives. But we never get taught how to build wealth. So while the income gap has narrowed marginally since 1970, the wealth disparity has increased significantly. Today, for every dollar of wealth possessed by a white household, a Black family only has a dime. To fully understand the wealth gap, we simply need to look at the disparities in those 3 key areas. Black Home Ownership
It's a often overlooked fact that up until 1968, most national banks would not lend to Black borrowers, and most insurance companies would not underwrite policies to Black homeowners. Additionally, a vast majority of developers in the early development of the suburbs refused to sell to Black home buyers.
The reality is, home ownership has long been the cornerstone of wealth building for most middle-class families. But an analysis of lending practices from 1934 through 1962 found that a mind-boggling 98% of home loans were approved for white borrowers. And even though those practices are now prohibited by law, Black home-ownership is actually lower now than it was in 1970. According to the Census Bureau, the Black home-ownership rate is now 40.6, compared to 73.6% for white families. As such, African American families have been playing catch-up. The [home-ownership] rate among Black Americans was 40.6%, the lowest level since at least 1970." Black Business Ownership
Black Investing
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Wealth is power. With wealth many things are possible." 
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Why White School Districts Have So Much More Money
Nine Of The Best Ways To Build Wealth
- $23 billion. According to EdBuild, that's how much more funding predominantly white school districts receive compared with districts that serve mostly students of color
- "For every student enrolled, the average nonwhite school district receives $2,226 less than a white school district," the report says. More than half of students in the U.S. go to segregated or "racially concentrated" schools, according to the report. Those are schools in which more than three-quarters of students are white, or more than three-quarters are nonwhite.
- Researchers found that high-poverty districts serving mostly students of color receive about $1,600 less per student than the national average
- That's while school districts that are predominately white and poor receive about $130 less.
- Public schools are primarily funded by local and state sources — the federal government pays for less than 10 percent, on average, of K-12 education
- According to the New York Times, for every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold just $5.04.
- The Economic Policy Institute found that more than one in four black households have zero or negative net worth, compared to less than one in ten white families without wealth.
- between 1983 and 2013, the wealth of the median black household declined 75 percent (from $6,800 to $1,700)
- At the same time, wealth for the median white household increased 14 percent from $102,000 to $116,800.
- In fact, by 2020 (just two years away) black households are projected to lose even more wealth: 18 percent
- After those declines, the median white household will own 86 times more wealth than its black counterpart
- 98% of home loans going to white families, from 1934 to 1962
- As a result, wealth in the white communities compounded and passed to future generations.
- Wealth—the measure of an individual’s or family’s financial net worth—provides all sorts of opportunities for American families.
- Importantly, it is the most complete measure of a family’s future economic well-being.
- African American families have a fraction of the wealth of white families, leaving them more economically insecure and with far fewer opportunities for economic mobility.
- even after considering positive factors such as increased education levels, African Americans have less wealth than whites.
- Black households, for example, have far less access to tax-advantaged forms of savings, due in part to a long history of employment discrimination and other discriminatory practices.
- A well-documented history of mortgage market discrimination means that blacks are significantly less likely to be homeowners than whites,3 which means they have less access to the savings and tax benefits that come with owning a home.
- Persistent labor market discrimination and segregation also force blacks into fewer and less advantageous employment opportunities than their white counterparts
- Because African Americans tend to have lower incomes, they inevitably receive fewer tax benefits—even if they are homeowners or have retirement savings accounts
- The bottom line is that persistent housing and labor market discrimination and segregation worsen the damaging cycle of wealth inequality
- African Americans own approximately one-tenth of the wealth of white Americans. In 2016, the median wealth for nonretired black households 25 years old and older was less than one-tenth that of similarly situated white households
- Black households have fewer and are in greater need of personal savings than their white counterparts
- For instance, the median wealth for black households with a college degree equaled about 70 percent of the median wealth for white households without a college degree
- In 2016, blacks between 50 and 65 years old and near retirement had only about 10 percent of the wealth of whites in the same age group
- African Americans have fewer assets than whites and are less likely to be homeowners, to own their own business, and to have a retirement account
- In 2016, blacks with debt typically owed $35,560—less than 40 percent of the $93,000 in debt owed by whites
- The disparities that exist between blacks and whites today can be traced back to public policies both implicit and explicit: From slavery to Jim Crow, from redlining to school segregation, and from mass incarceration to environmental racism, policies have consistently impeded or inhibited African Americans from having access to opportunities to realize the American dream
- Moreover, the disparities between white and black Americans can nearly always be traced back to policies that either implicitly or explicitly discriminate against black Americans
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, black mothers and children die at disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts, regardless of their income levels
- Income, on the one hand, includes earnings from work, Social Security benefits, and pension benefits, as well as interest and dividends that households use to meet their current spending needs
- Wealth, on the other hand, consists of any form of savings, including the value of one’s houses and cars, minus one’s debt
- wealth is more concentrated than income
- For example, in 2016, the richest 20 percent of blacks owned 64.9 percent of all black wealth but only received 52.6 percent of all black income
- African Americans systematically have less wealth than whites
- The median black wealth in 2016 amounted to $13,460—less than 10 percent of the $142,180 median white wealth
- The average black wealth was 11 percent that of whites, and slightly more than one-quarter of blacks had no or negative wealth, compared with only a little more than 10 percent of whites
- In 2016, median black wealth stood at $13,460—about half of the median black wealth recorded just before the Great Recession.
- The average black wealth in 2016 was still about one-third less than it was before the start of the Great Recession—$102,477 compared with $154,557. Over the same period, average white wealth grew by about 15 percent—from $815,063 in 2007 to $935,584 in 2016
- The Great Recession did greater damage to black wealth than it did to white wealth, widening the racial wealth gap even further over the past decade
- Moreover, it would take more than 200 years for median black wealth to equal median white wealth
- Yet blacks are less likely to work in jobs that carry benefits such as retirement savings due to historical occupational segregation
- Typically, blacks have more costly—or high-interest—debt, such as auto loans, student debt, and credit card debt, than whites
- For instance, blacks with at least a college degree still had about 30 percent less wealth than whites without a college degree
- Similarly, the median wealth of married African Americans in 2016 amounted to only two-thirds of the median wealth of unmarried whites
- Blacks in the top one-fifth of the income distribution still have less than one-third the wealth of whites in the same income distribution level
- The widening gap can be attributed in part to the foreclosure crisis, which had a devastating effect on communities of color, who were disproportionately targeted for subprime loans. Indeed, black families lost 48 percent of their wealth during the financial crisis
- In 2016, only 41 percent of blacks owned their homes, compared with 71.8 percent of whites
- Black homeowners also had less than half the home equity of white homeowners—$45,000 compared with $92,000, respectively
- Only 37.5 percent of nonretired blacks had retirement savings plans—401(k)s and IRAs—compared with 65.9 percent of whites
- Blacks had a median balance in retirement savings that was approximately one-third that of whites—$23,000 compared with $67,000
- blacks were less likely to obtain other nonretirement financial saving options—such as savings bonds and mutual funds
- Most blacks and whites had some of these savings, but the median savings of blacks were just 21.4 percent of the median savings of whites—$2,650 compared with $12,400, respectively
- Finally, the data show that in 2016, blacks were less than half as likely to own private business interests as whites
- Their median business equity, when they did own a business, equaled one-third that of whites—$30,000 compared with $90,600
- Blacks’ debt payments, however, are relatively large compared with that debt
- The total amount of debt that African Americans owed in 2016 was approximately one-third that of what whites owed
- Yet, blacks typically had debt payments that were more than twice as costly as those as whites—$12,900 compared with $6,84
- Blacks are particularly less likely to owe money on a mortgage or home equity line of credit, which tend to be a comparatively less expensive way to borrow
- Yet blacks are slightly more likely to owe installment loans such as car and student loans than whites
- Housing has always been and continues to be the main vehicle for families to build wealth
- Sixty-nine percent of blacks’ household wealth was derived from home equity, compared with 57 percent of whites in 2013
- For example, black families are more likely to face predatory lending practices and to live in lower-income neighborhoods
- Research shows that when a neighborhood becomes more than 10 percent black, home values decrease
- Home equity for black families represents more than half of their acquired wealth, whereas for white families it represents just 39 percent
- A 2015 Demos study estimated that closing the gap in homeownership rates between white and black families would cause the racial wealth gap to decrease by 31 percent
- In 2017, President Donald Trump proposed eliminating the Economic Development Administration as well as the Minority Business Development Agency, which would certainly make it more difficult for African Americans to start small businesses
- Since its inception in 2011, the CFPB has returned nearly $12 billion to 29 million victims of financial malfeasance, including more than $450 million to about 1 million fair lending abuse victims
- The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have engaged in repeated efforts to weaken the CFPB
- Eighteen percent of African Americans do not have a bank account compared with just 3 percent of whites, making them more reliant on and vulnerable to predatory lending
- Blacks are much more likely to take on student debt in order to attend college and to default than their white counterparts
- According to a CAP analysis, nearly 50 percent of blacks who entered college in the 2003-04 school year defaulted on their student loans
- A recent Brookings Institution study projects that 70 percent of all black borrowers may ultimately experience default
- Black students are more likely to attend for-profit colleges, and among students who entered college in 2003-04, three-quarters of black students who dropped out of private, for-profit colleges defaulted on their student loans
- Leaving school with no education debt would also mean black students could start building wealth more quickly
- In 1983, for example, nearly one-third of black workers were union members; by 2015, that number fell to 14 percent
- While the Affordable Care Act has lowered the uninsured rate among blacks by more than one-third, blacks are still more likely to be uninsured than whites
- Large gaps between the incomes of blacks and whites have narrowed only modestly in recent decades.
- In 2016, blacks at the 90th percentile of their distribution earned 68% as much as whites at their 90th percentile, the same as in 1970.
- At the median, blacks earned 65% as much as whites in 2016, up from 59% in 1970.
- Similarly, lower-income blacks narrowed the gap slightly from 47% in 1970 to 54% in 2016.
- increased steadily
- A new study conducted by researchers at Stanford, Harvard and the Census Bureau, finds that in 99 percent of neighborhoods in the United States, black boys earn less in adulthood than white boys who come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Black children whose parents were in the top 1 percent of earners, with incomes at an average of $1.1 million, grew up to have incomes 12.4 percent lower than white children who grew up in households with similar incomes.
- looked at racial disparities in income over generations
Nine Of The Best Ways To Build Wealth
- It is often said that the three main sources of wealth creation are the stock market, real estate and entrepreneurship
A look at the telling statistics of payday loans
- African Americans are twice as likely to take out a payday loan than people of other races/ethnicities.
- Those with household incomes less than $40,000/year are almost three times more likely to take out a payday loan than those with higher incomes. People in households making between $15,000 and $25,000/year are the most likely to take out a payday loan.
- Renters are more than twice more likely to use payday loans than homeowners.
Here’s why the wealth gap is widening between white families and everyone else
- The wealth gap between white families and their black and Hispanic counterparts has more than tripled in the last 50 years
- White families are five times more likely than black or Hispanic families to inherit money.
- “Wealth is not just money in the bank. It’s insurance against tough times,” McKernan said “These are stepping stones to the middle class. Wealth translates into opportunity.”
- Black homeownership rate is lower today than it was 40 years ago, with 42 percent of black families owning homes in 2016 compared to 44 percent in 1976
Report: No progress for African Americans on homeownership, unemployment and incarceration in 50 years
- Fifty years after the historic Kerner Commission identified “white racism” as the key cause of “pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing,” there has been no progress in how African Americans fare in comparison to whites when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration, according to a report released Monday by the Economic Policy Institute.
- 7.5 percent of African Americans were unemployed in 2017, compared with 6.7 percent in 1968 — still roughly twice the white unemployment rate.
- The rate of homeownership, one of the most important ways for working- and middle-class families to build wealth, has remained virtually unchanged for African Americans in the past 50 years.
- Black homeownership remains just over 40 percent, trailing 30 points behind the rate for whites
- Black homeownership remains just over 40 percent, trailing 30 points behind the rate for whites
- The wealth gap between white and black Americans has more than tripled in the past 50 years, according to Federal Reserve data.
- Today the median net worth of white families — $171,000 — is 10 times that of black families
- The lack of economic progress is especially startling, given that black educational attainment has improved significantly in the past five decades
- In 1968, 54 percent of blacks graduated from high school, compared with 75 percent of whites
- Today, more than 90 percent of African Americans have a high school diploma, 3.3 percentage points shy of the high school completion rate for whites
- In 1968, 54 percent of blacks graduated from high school, compared with 75 percent of whites
- African Americans make 82.5 cents of every dollar earned by the typical white worker
- The typical black household earns 61.6 percent of the annual income of white households
5 Reasons Why Black People Are Still Broke
- African Americans made up about 12 percent of the population in the United States in 2015, but 27.5 percent of those living in poverty
- 45.6 percent of black children aged 6 and under live in poverty
- According to The State of Working America, black people spend 4 percent more money annually than any other race
