Impacting Our Future As A Minority
No one has played a greater role in helping all Americans know the black past than Carter G. Woodson, the individual who created Negro History Week in Washington, D.C., in February 1926. Woodson believed that his role was to use black history and culture as a weapon in the struggle for racial uplift.
Woodson hoped to build upon this creativity and further stimulate interest through Negro History Week. Woodson had two goals. One was to use history to prove to white America that blacks had played important roles in the creation of America and thereby deserve to be treated equally as citizens. In essence, Woodson—by celebrating heroic black figures—be they inventors, entertainers, or soldiers—hoped to prove our worth, and by proving our worth—he believed that equality would soon follow.
His other goal was to increase the visibility of black life and history, at a time when few newspapers, books, and universities took notice of the black community, except to dwell upon the negative. Ultimately Woodson believed Negro History Week—which became Black History Month in 1976—would be a vehicle for racial transformation forever.
Though Black History Month is celebrated to this day, it was impossible for one man to completely change society’s belief that most black people are unworthy to be given this not worthy month and because of that, Black History Month is somewhat made a mockery of at this point in many instances and the only ones who capitalize on it most are other nationalities and races.
So, does this mean we shouldn’t celebrate Black History Month? Absolutely NOT! We should continue to celebrate our accomplishments as a people, but more importantly, we need to start using our past as a blueprint for how to succeed in the future.
The Black lifestyle and culture are being celebrated daily. Other cultures love our clothing, music, art, body type, food, speech, and much more. Now they are working into how we even wear our hair. Black people are one of the most prolific trendsetters, but we never take the time to capitalize on our own contributions.
After 2020 hit us with one of the most cynical blows, watching black people die for no reason and all the civil unrest. Many black people looked at the past and decided to make some epic changes in order to fix our future. However, don’t think that other cultures are working on ideas on how to capitalize on even 2020 now. This is our time…. Our future is at stake and we need to regroup and come together financially as a people to build back up the black community.
Black-owned banks are a shrinking part of the financial system. There are only 19 of them in the United States. A decade ago, there were 36. Collectively, these Black-owned banks control just $4.8 billion, which is less than 1% of this nation’s banking assets.
If black people are ever going to begin to create wealth in the black community, we have to start using our own banks as a means of creating wealth within our community. Most don’t know that black people are the financial backbone of this country. We are because we as black people spend more and support almost every other nationality more than we actually support our own. Banking is included in this and if we want to secure our financial future, we will have to start putting our own money into our own communities.
So, how can we start building for our BETTER tomorrow?
Invest during good times and bad
Right now, even with the pandemic, there are ways that black people could begin to get financially stable. For example, most people who got stimulus checks went shopping and bought clothes, and expensive things. However, it would have been smarter if many took that money and invested in something that would yield a return. Some were smart and invested in stocks which picked up a week after the country shut down. Right now, is one of the best times to get in on the ground floor and start putting your money into stocks. Even if it’s only $100 it could yield a return that could create some kind of financial growth.
Another way a person could invest is by having a retirement account set up. This is not the time to depend on Social Security to be there when you get too old to work. Now is the time to make sure you secure your own future with the funds you save. Again, you don’t have to put a lot into the account, you just have to be consistent in putting it into the account.
These are simple ways you can invest in good and bad times.
Have a financial strategy
Black people as a whole have learned to live from hand to mouth. It’s not our fault entirely because when we do well as a group, things like Rosewood happen. However, that should not stop the black community from trying to make it financially in this world. We just need to have a real strategy for how we are going to reach our goal. There are ways we can achieve our financial goals.
Start With a Written Plan
Having a clear plan for your goals can keep you from going off-course. In making your plan, remember to incorporate four things:
- A specific objective or result in you want financially
- A way to measure your progress towards the goal financially
- A time frame for achieving your goal financially
- The specific steps you need to take in order to reach your goal financially
That last one is especially important. Outlining each action in the process can take the guesswork out of reaching your goal. And remember to write it all down. Putting your plan in writing will mentally reinforce your commitment to following it.
Visualize Your Money Goals
Visualization can be a powerful tool for reaching your financial goals. There are several ways to incorporate visualization into your goal-setting strategy. See yourself being financially stable and successful. However, you want to make this specific. Just putting pictures of money on your wall isn’t specific enough. Create things that you would use the money to do. Like buying a home, paying off student loans, paying for your child’s education, traveling, saving $5000 by the end of the year, and anything goal you want to accomplish.
You could create a financial vision board featuring images of things that reflect your goal. Choose one that’s specific and easy to remember, so you can repeat it to yourself throughout the day.
Consider Focusing on Short-Term Goals First
You likely have both short-term and long-term money goals in mind but prioritizing shorter-term goals could give you a momentum boost. They typically require less effort, so you won’t get burnt out.
For example, you may be deciding between starting to invest or paying off the last few thousand dollars you owe in student loan debt. Focusing on the debt might mean delaying your investment plans a little longer but it’s a trade-off you may be willing to make if you’re ready to ditch those loans for good. Think about which one will be the most beneficial and work on that goal first. Just remember if you’re dealing with a student loan, it’s not going away. One way or another the government will get their money.
Build Money Goals Into Your Budget – Financial Strategy
It’s one thing to say that you want to save a certain amount of money or pay off a certain amount of debt; it’s another to actually do it. Building your budget to be inclusive of your goals, rather than focusing just on spending, will ensure you put money toward your goals consistently every month.
Try adding a separate budget category for saving if you haven’t. If you have multiple savings goals you’re working towards, you could break each one down into its own category. Assigning every dollar in your budget a task prevents it from slipping through the cracks.
Put Goals on Autopilot
Automation is one of the best tools for managing money and making progress on your financial plan. When you have automatic transfers scheduled from your checking account to a savings account, for instance, you can watch your money grow without doing any heavy lifting or getting tempted to spend it elsewhere.
Automation can also be beneficial if your goals involve debt repayment. Setting up bi-weekly automatic credit card payments can help you whittle away at the balance while limiting the likelihood of late fees or negative marks on your credit report. However, automatic transfers may not always work for everyone. So, try this… On average, people spend money regularly daily, but most will not spend loose change. Stop throwing away your pennies, and when you get paid withdraw a certain amount of money. It could be as little as $5.00 and put it into a change jar. Get one of those big water bottles and every time you get paid drop your change from your pockets into the bottle and forget about it. At the end of the year of saving, get coin rolls and collect your coins. Take it to the bank and ask to open a CD account where you cannot touch the money for at least 6 months. That way if you touch it, you will get penalized and that will encourage you not to spend it.
Leverage Free Money
Employer-sponsored retirement plans and Health Savings Accounts (HSA) offer something that may seem impossible: free money. Taking advantage of matching contributions on these types of plans is a simple way to accumulate savings faster and reach your money goals sooner.
If your employer offers them, make sure you’re contributing to a sponsored retirement account and HSA. Then, check whether your employer will match your contributions. Consider raising your elective deferral rate so that you receive the full employer match.
Understand the Value of Time
The sooner you begin working towards your savings and investing goals, the better. For example, the best time to begin saving for retirement is as soon as you get your first job. An individual retirement account can help you grow your savings on a tax-advantaged basis whether your employer offers a plan or not.
The second-best time to start pursuing a money goal is right now. The longer you wait, the less you can earn in terms of compounding interest.
Diversify
By diversifying your investment portfolio, you can manage risk while keeping your goals in sight. It prevents you from allocating too much of your portfolio to a certain type of security and shortchanging your return potential over time.
You can apply that same principle to your saving vehicles, too. By keeping funds in a range of high-yield savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts, tax-advantaged accounts, and taxable accounts, you can achieve different rates of return with varying degrees of risk.
Increase Cash Flow
Financial Strategy Another financial strategy for reaching your money goals is increasing the amount of income you have to put towards them. There are several ways to do this: asking for a raise at your current job, angling for a promotion, working a part-time job, or starting a side hustle.
As you determine how to increase your income, consider which avenue would yield the highest return on investment. Working an extra 20 hours a week at a part-time gig in addition to your regular 40-hour job may not be worth the time if it only marginally raises your cash flow.
Get Professional Financial Advice
Sometimes it can be helpful to have an outside perspective on your money goals. If you are struggling to determine the right strategies and steps to reach your goals, consider speaking with a financial advisor.
An advisor can help you assess your current financial health and set realistic goals for the time and assets you have. And if you ever veer off-course, they can help you get back on track.
