Real Everyday Solutions: Black Economics

[Kenny West]

To go with #2

Black-Owned Business Directory

This will help you find local black businesses in your area. Might as well review bomb them with 5 stars while you're at it. I do that to the stores I have to plans to visit

 

[Taadow]

1. Look at your monthly discretionary (non utilities, food, clothing, etc.). Find a way to spend at least 10-20% of this money on Black businesses. If you shop on Amazon mostly, google "Black owned Amazon Sellers" and there are articles about Amazon Sellers for common products owned by Black people, try to use them.

2. If you received good service from a Black owned business--even a barber shop--give them a good rating on Google. That helps their visibility and helps highlight good Black businesses instead of the bad ones.

3. Send one younger person (friend or relative) the link to the FDIC Smart Money for Young People courses to help improve their financial literacy. Offer to help give them $25 to get started if they prove they will use it correctly (bank account, stock market, etc.)

These are great, and I will add to them this:

1 & 2. You don’t have to go out of your way to say “I do this to support Black business!”
Just support that business. What I mean is, if you find a good product/business that is Black owned,
you can refer it to ANYBODY - Brown, Yellow, Puerto Rican, or Haitian. The referral from somebody
they trust can do just as good (or more good) than an online rating...but, that’s only if people trust you. Lol

3. Give young people CONCRETE ASSETS so they can learn what to do with them.
Nothing crazy, but baby steps...things to teach them the basics about handling funds.

Years ago, the bank I used to work for started Child Savings Accounts and gave $100 to the account
off top. I took my niece in there and set up an account for her, she was about 11. So everytime she
got a li’l money here and there, she put some in her savings account. By the time she was old enough
to get a job and start dealing with regular income, she already had a practice of budgeting and wasn’t
green about banking processes like many teens.

Or - if you give a kid a gift give them something like savings bonds, so they learn that side of the game.

Or - I don’t have any kids, so I have nephews and nieces as beneficiaries of some of my assets
in case something should happen. So of course I had to break down what that means, but they
listen real hard to that kinda thing lol. But that was also good for me, because that made me sit my ass down
and really have a plan for my estate instead of leaving that for when I had “real money”. And it makes
you review that every once in a while.

 

[levitate]

let’s start with the basics.

1. Budgeting
2. Developing an emergency fund
3. Eliminating debt

 

[TripleAgent]

Do a test run of a pardner/susu with people you consider trustworthy.

It is a way to get people from your community to save and have access to the money at a determined date or random draw.

Example:

Over 10 months, 10 people invest $100 with the banker and each month a different person takes $1000 for themselves. The pot is then renewed with $100 each month for another member to take.

Us Jamaicans still do this. It is a great way to control your finances or get a boost when you need it.

What is the point of this? No one actually gains anything.

 

[Pistolvania Prince]

Homie on my Facebook is doing free financial plans all January. Check him out, he’s the only black financial advisor in PA outside of Philly or Pittsburgh that’s works for a major wire house firm & he stay in the community.
Tajai Smith, Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley

 

[luciddreamer]

digit is the truth

i have a 10k goal set from now to next year with 20 to 30 dollars a day saved.

Albert is also another good one.

 

[luciddreamer]

Is watch thread the same as bookmark?

 

[LurkMoar]

In

 

[Monsanto]

What is the point of this? No one actually gains anything.

It's how communities pool their money to start businesses in the short term without going to the bank.

It's exactly how all of these Chinese banks, China towns and other groups set up their businesses in every town. This is the missing part in those stories of immigrants coming here and building something instantaneously.

They also stay within an apartment packed like tuna until they can all pitch in on a house and repeat until everyone has a home.

-----

Of course you have the groups that come here with money but we aren't looking at that perspective.

 

[Rawtid]

It's how communities pool their money to start businesses in the short term without going to the bank.

It's exactly how all of these Chinese banks, China towns and other groups set up their businesses in every town. This is the missing part in those stories of immigrants coming here and building something instantaneously.

They also stay within an apartment packed like tuna until they can all pitch in on a house and repeat until everyone has a home.

-----

Of course you have the groups that come here with money but we aren't looking at that perspective.

My friend's man is Jamaican and his family has pooled their resources since before he was born; they have multiple businesses and homes they own collectively and everyone is basically "comfortable" financially. This is what I've tried to do with my mom, but no buy in with other family members. There is such a distrust among African Americans (even family) that makes this concept difficult for us. We are SO independent, yet dependent on systems and structures that don't work for us.

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

There is such a distrust among African Americans (even family) that makes this concept difficult for us.

Because we always have to feel like we're getting one over on the next black person. Even for simple shyt. My dad used to do some petty shyt back in the day so he could feel like he was outsmarting me. Like is it really worth all that? What did you gain? It's incumbent on those of us who know better to not further this with our children. Stop breeding a culture of mistrust in the household, the nuclear family, the extended family.

 

[Monsanto]

My friend's man is Jamaican and his family has pooled their resources since before he was born; they have multiple businesses and homes they own collectively and everyone is basically "comfortable" financially. This is what I've tried to do with my mom, but no buy in with other family members. There is such a distrust among African Americans (even family) that makes this concept difficult for us. We are SO independent, yet dependent on systems and structures that don't work for us.

Yep. Churches, condos for rent, businesses and homes for retirement. My family has set things up so the next gen can take over.

I would guess that because they aren't able to one up their oppressors, they do it to those they can. It is a cycle of victims creating more victims.

Hurt people hurt people. It is a sad pathology that all black people have and we haven't addressed.

 

[Rawtid]

Because we always have to feel like we're getting one over on the next black person. Even for simple shyt. My dad used to do some petty shyt back in the day so he could feel like he was outsmarting me. Like is it really worth all that? What did you gain? It's incumbent on those of us who know better to not further this with our children. Stop breeding a culture of mistrust in the household, the nuclear family, the extended family.

Wow, sorry to hear about the experience with your dad and I completely agree with you; we need to stop breeding that mistrust. Some of the mentalities we have ourselves or ones we impart into our children, are overall harmful and not conducive to growth. I think some people still feel there aren't resources to go around, so they covet whatever product and/or knowledge they have. Coveting and community can't exist in the same space.

Yep. Churches, condos for rent, businesses and homes for retirement. My family has set things up so the next gen can take over.

I would guess that because they aren't able to one up their oppressors, they do it to those they can. It is a cycle of victims creating more victims.

Hurt people hurt people. It is a sad pathology that all black people have and we haven't addressed.

Man, they own a car dealership and no one has purchased a car outside of the family business, like forever now. That alone is substantial the way some of us run through cars. Even when they have a child that may be straying, they send them to the Jamaican country side for a year of hard(ish) labor working on a family farm. After the year, the kid has gotten their shyt together and even formed a couple of ideas for a business. I feel that was important too, having a place to go when you're directionless. Just 360 degrees of support at your fingertips and all blood family. That's exactly what I'm trying to create, but by myself. It's daunting but not impossible.

 

[Geode]

Pay Yourself First!!!!

I set up a an online only account and 10% of my paycheck goes directly from payroll to that account. I used to transfer it myself from my checking account and sometimes the deposit wouldn't make it to the online account because I'd find a way to "need it".

I also have a round-up account that accumulates a little change.

I do a monthly budget EVERY month.

While these aren't creating great wealth for me, it does put me in a position not to be financially crippled by not-so-minor emergencies and better equipped to set higher financial goals.

ETA: If you can't do 10%, do something, even if its $25 per paycheck.

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Wow, sorry to hear about the experience with your dad and I completely agree with you; we need to stop breeding that mistrust. Some of the mentalities we have ourselves or ones we impart into our children, are overall harmful and not conducive to growth. I think some people still feel there aren't resources to go around, so they covet whatever product and/or knowledge they have.

I don't hold anything against him. He's a nice guy, just with a propensity to be an a$$hole. A combination of growing up in a tough household (not very nurturing), military mentality, and drugs. When he's having a good day, he's an entertaining guy to be around, but on a bad day you want to put hands on him. So he's been a good example of what to be and what not to be.