The Racial Wealth Gap in America: Asset Types Held by Race

[Elle Driver]

Teach investments early, Millennials can turn it around for us, though many are approaching their late 20s to late 30s and that investment window may be closed as the closer you are to retirement age, the harder it is to save. You can be risky with investments and financial ventures during your prime years as you can eventually recover from significant losses should they occur....

Sadly, you have Boomers with absolutely no savings and relying on SSI/Medicaid to pay for their bills who want to begin investing, it is just too late. They had 50 years to do it and squandered it on LSD, Weed, Platform Shoes, and Color TVs....

Millenials and Gen-Z:
Main Job
Side Hustle 1
Side Hustle 2

This will need to be a community effort, save all you can from your side gigs, dump it into a separate Roth IRA, don't touch it for 30/40 years, max out your contributions on your job's pension/retirement plan, and don't try to keep up with the Joneses....

Also, do some Estate planning, draw up a Last Will and Testament, pull out a life insurance policy and name beneficiaries now, you can get a good rate since you are young and healthy....that way, when you pass, you can leave something significant for your family or a charity/organization of your choice.

These cacs aren't smarter than us, they just have generational money, most are still just losers who can pull a heloc from Great-Grandma's house....

Facts, especially the wills, life insurance and properties. I thank God my mom had a will when she passed.

 

[Serious]

Facts, especially the wills, life insurance and properties. I thank God my mom had a will when she passed.

If I die tomorrow my family would be set.

I got some pretty decent life insurance, plus my appreciating assets.


Dying broke is some selfish shyt, to your family, IF you have the means to help it.

 

[phcitywarrior]

I'd like to see the breakdown for Asians in America as well.

 

[Elle Driver]

If I die tomorrow my family would be set.

I got some pretty decent life insurance, plus my appreciating assets.


Dying broke is some selfish shyt, to your family, IF you have the means to help it.

Even more important when you have kids/a spouse. Most black folks just don’t know about it, usually don’t have enough funds for even a funeral.

 

[ogc163]

With that said, we still have a over a trillion dollars in spending power collectively.

Spending power is not that important and does not give you much insight into a communities wealth or economic condition, as Professor Jared Ball the author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power points out:

"It is also important to note that “buying power” is a confused phrase in that it, again, says nothing of a wealth Black people have little of but also suggests that this “power” is or can be for community uplift. The fact, again, that this is target marketing material means that by “power” they mean the ability to generate money for corporations to whom this spending will be geared. It does not mean that Black America has some un-tapped economic strength that can be marshaled to buy that which increases wealth (land, stocks, etc.) and speaks to the basics of colonial exploitation." LINK
​

I shouldn't have to produce a study of cats buying J's, mercedes, gucci, rolexes, $100 kicks, as evidence that a lot our peeps, don't save and invest when they should / can.

Stating what Black folks can and should do is vague--and showcases a degree of laziness on your part-- if you are going to "Preach" about debt than you should be able to provide evidence to back up your preaching. Black conspicuous spending is an overstated trope that people use to justify their moral grandstanding, that is not to imply that spending on those things is a net positive but in the larger scheme of things they're not that prevalent or important in determining why Black people are in the position they are in. As Sandy Darity and co point out:

"The finding advanced in peer reviewed articles in economic journals is clear: there is no evidence that black Americans have a lower savings rate than white Americans once household income is taken into account (Hamilton and Chiteji, 2013). For example, Maury Gittleman and Edward Wolff (2004) using data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID), tracked the financial position of black and white families and found that, once income is controlled, if anything, black families actually have a slightly higher savings rate than their white counterparts. 22 This mild savings rate advantage is indicative of even greater thriftiness among blacks, since they typically have more kin obligations to assist low-income relatives which, further reduces the ability to save (Chiteji and Hamilton 2002; and Heflin and Patillo 2006). If anything, it appears that blacks generally live more frugal lives than whites; a study conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy using the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances found that, at comparable levels of income, whites spend 1.3 times more than blacks (Traub et al.)." LINK​

 

[Serious]

Spending power is not that important and does not give you much insight into a communities wealth or economic condition, as Professor Jared Ball the author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power points out:

"It is also important to note that “buying power” is a confused phrase in that it, again, says nothing of a wealth Black people have little of but also suggests that this “power” is or can be for community uplift. The fact, again, that this is target marketing material means that by “power” they mean the ability to generate money for corporations to whom this spending will be geared. It does not mean that Black America has some un-tapped economic strength that can be marshaled to buy that which increases wealth (land, stocks, etc.) and speaks to the basics of colonial exploitation." LINK
​

Stating what Black folks can and should do is vague--and showcases a degree of laziness on your part-- if you are going to "Preach" about debt than you should be able to provide evidence to back up your preaching. Black conspicuous spending is an overstated trope that people use to justify their moral grandstanding, that is not to imply that spending on those things is a net positive but in the larger scheme of things they're not that prevalent or important in determining why Black people are in the position they are in. As Sandy Darity and co point out:

"The finding advanced in peer reviewed articles in economic journals is clear: there is no evidence that black Americans have a lower savings rate than white Americans once household income is taken into account (Hamilton and Chiteji, 2013). For example, Maury Gittleman and Edward Wolff (2004) using data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID), tracked the financial position of black and white families and found that, once income is controlled, if anything, black families actually have a slightly higher savings rate than their white counterparts. 22 This mild savings rate advantage is indicative of even greater thriftiness among blacks, since they typically have more kin obligations to assist low-income relatives which, further reduces the ability to save (Chiteji and Hamilton 2002; and Heflin and Patillo 2006). If anything, it appears that blacks generally live more frugal lives than whites; a study conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy using the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances found that, at comparable levels of income, whites spend 1.3 times more than blacks (Traub et al.)." LINK​

So what’s the solution?

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

So what’s the solution?

systemic/policy-based reparations (not cash) as well as dismantling systemic racism...with the latter not likely to ever happen

 

[Serious]

systemic/policy-based reparations (not cash) as well as dismantling systemic racism...with the latter not likely to ever happen

I mean other than the obvious. I don’t see America giving black people reparations. Matter of fact, if Black Americans were to get reparations, I wouldn’t want it to solely be monetary relief only , because that could easily be a wash after a few years to one generation, meanwhile white people will still hold collectively an economic advantage.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

I mean other than the obvious. I don’t see America giving black people reparations. Matter of fact, if Black Americans were to get reparations, I wouldn’t want it to solely be monetary relief only , because that could easily be a wash after a few years to one generation, meanwhile white people will still hold collectively an economic advantage.

well the obvious is the only solution to the wealth gap, that's 400 years in the making and ongoing - collectively (all races) our generation is the first generation expected to be less well off economically than our parents, you can only imagine what that means for black people. 08 recession wiped out more black wealth than it did white people, this crisis is affecting service workers (which employs many black people) more than white collar workers - we are continually being pulled further behind. the only answer is the answer that wont happen.

we could flip a switch and perform academically like asians and cism would still keep us out of certain industries and roles. reality is, nothing is going to change for us unless both systemic reparations and systemic racism are addressed

 

[Serious]

See I’m fully aware of this but expecting white people to give us reparations to narrow the wealth gap, seems like a pipe dream.


Theyre not about to stop being racist and give up power so that we can thrive.

Especially when a lot of poor white people are and have been hurting.

@DEAD7

If relief comes, I’m all for it, but this is why I hedge my lifestyle with a “bootstrap mentality”.

 

[DEAD7]

See I’m fully aware of this but expecting white people to give us reparations to narrow the wealth gap, seems like a pipe dream.

Its all in how you sell it...

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

See I’m fully aware of this but expecting white people to give us reparations to narrow the wealth gap, seems like a pipe dream.


Theyre not about to stop being racist and give up power so that we can thrive.

Especially when a lot of poor white people are and have been hurting.

@DEAD7

If relief comes, I’m all for it, but this is why I hedge my lifestyle with a “bootstrap mentality”.

there is no expectation that they'll do this...you asked for the answer, and the answer happens to be something that aint happening. there are tons of individual black people doing well, you can bootstrap all you want, but collectively we are still at the bottom, far behind and continuing to fall further behind

 

[Serious]

This is what I want to happen.

But everyone around here is so pessimistic.

This is something that we CAN do.

 

[ogc163]

 

[phcitywarrior]

Not sure what these wishful thinking posts are about white millennials squandering inheritance is about. These wealth transfers are cascading. Look at white millennials who own homes and likely half of them state getting (large) down payments from parents is how they were able to purchase. But supposedly they won’t know what to do with the 800k they inherit when their parents die?

I agree with this reasoning. I do wonder if their progress might be blunted by lower marriage rates/increased divorce rates. Marriage and families are the bedrock of any society and help preserve of wealth.