Black History Month - A Celebration of My-Story

Today is February 29, 2008, the last day of Black History Month in a leap year and I wanted to write a note about Black History Month and it’s impact. Black History Month was created in 1976 as an extension of what was then known as Negro History Week. Negro History Week was created by Carter Woodson in 1926.

Actually, the idea of Black History Month is somewhat controversial, many people believe that celebrating the history of one race for a month is wrong. To me it doesn’t really matter because I look a Black History Month as somewhat of a waste, the media trots out some black historical videos and never tells anyone and by then the month is over.

The purpose of this post isn’t to debunk Black History Month but to remind us that history is written today by people like you and me. Certainly Barack Obama is writing history by his unprecedented campaign for the presidency, he knows and we know he is writing history on a major scale.

But history is written everyday in much smaller ways by people like you and me. For example, I’m trying to write history by encouraging and fighting for entrepreneurship and financial education for all of us. So my question today, is What are you doing to write history? What are you doing to write history in YOUR family?

As Black History Month ends, link about next year (It’s coming no matter what you do), think about how you can write your own history, so next Black History Month isn’t Black History Month but My-Story Month. That way we can truly celebrate BLACK HISTORY. Thats my goal for next year. Join me

What are assets?

Another confusing financial term, assets. Actually assets are the building blocks of wealth. Remember, we decided to define wealth as the length of time we can maintain our lifestyle without generating income. (btw, this is not my definition, this definition came from a very famous thinker and entrepreneur Buckminster Fuller. According to Buckminster Fuller, regaining time defines wealth. I agree because you can’t buy time).

So, how do you maintain your lifestyle without having to generate income. How do you buy back your time. Well one way is to create and invest in assets that produce cash. The idea is to work once to buy or create an asset and then use the cashflow to buy your time back, effectively creating wealth.

Think bout this idea. You buy or create an asset once, and it provides you income forever. Thats how you create wealth.

Next post - How to buy assets

What is wealth? What is Income?

My last post talked about sub prime mortgages and the fact that “The erosion of wealth is staggering”. So, I’ve decided to talk a little bit about wealth, wealth thinking and how you can develop what I call a wealth ethic.

The question is “What is wealth?” According to Webster, wealth is defined as “abundance of valuable material possessions or resources or,abundant supply or all property that has a money value or an exchangeable value” but reading this definition doesn’t provide clarity. So again “What is wealth”?

If you go Google “What is wealth?”, you get a slew of results but no answers. So lets agree on a definition, lets agree that wealth is determined by how long you can maintain your lifestyle without you having to work. In other words wealth means for the sake of this blog that you can live the way you live without having to create any more income.

Which takes us to the next question, “What is Income?”. Income is the money that you generate from your effort or the efforts of others under your control. In other words income is the money you generate from work. Income is not wealth, income is money you receive from your efforts personally or from your business.

Over the next few days, think about ways to create wealth and income. It is possible to do both.

The Sub Prime Mortgage Mess and Black Wealth (Hoodwinked and Bamboozled)

Here we go again. Our lack of financial savvy and education is costing us billions, yes billions of dollars. Here is a quote I just read from the News Observer website

“As we spend this month celebrating the achievements of African-Americans, I’m saddened by a report that concludes that the subprime mortgage crisis has caused the largest loss of wealth in modern U.S. history for black and Latino homeowners. The erosion of wealth is staggering. Subprime borrowers of color will lose $164 billion to $213 billion because of loans taken during the past eight years”

Now I normally never use profanity but the question that needs to be asked is What the hell happened? How did we end up in this mess again. Here is another quote from the same article; “Before any of you fix your lips to place all the blame on the homeowners, consider one thing. Just remember that this loss of wealth came largely as a result of lenders and others in the mortgage industry who took advantage of people trying to achieve the American dream of homeownership.”

Again, we are taken advantage of, again in this case lenders hoodwinked us out of one of the best ways to build wealth in America. I ask again, What the hell happened?

Well if you think critically what happened again was since we don’t understand wealth we where hoodwinked, thats what happened.

So the question is How can we fix this damned problem? How can we ensure that we aren’t cheated again, taken advantage of again. How can we fix it.

We fix it with a very unpopular word. Education, specifically Financial Education and an understanding of wealth and wealth building. I am committed to learning more about building wealth and teaching what I learn. Join me.

BTW
Just to make sure everyone understands, we aren’t the only folks hoodwinked and bamboozled. There are alot of people caught in this mess. It’s just that in this country of entrepreneurship and wealth accumulation, we don’t teach anything about money, wealth or entrepreneurship in school, so most Americans are financially literate.

BTW
Thanks to everyone that sent me email regarding my daughter. She is 36 and has a great family (two kids and a great husband). She has cancer. It is hard to say those words. I am scared and sad because I haven’t always been proud of my fathering experience, but I love her and pray everyday for her recovery.

Thanks for your prayers

Sorry for not posting

I got a bunch of email asking about why I stopped posting and the simple answer is life. Like many of you I’m facing some challenges in my family including children (my daughter is very ill) and siblings and frankly haven’t been able to focus on posting. Of course there have been tons of topics to post about. The presidential campaign provides material like nowhere else and I gues will continue to provide material. I must admit while I am excited that there is a Black man running for president, todays problems outstrip my excitement.

There is also all of the economic news going on in the US and the world. Theres the sub-prime mortgage mess which I know is causing many people challenges (I will be writing about that this week) and there gas prices, food prices the credit crunch and more. Basically it seems as if the worlds economy is having the flu and if thats the case we are getting pneumonia.

So start your education, find a mentor, learn to invest in assets that throw off cash. I know some great mentors that are teaching real estate investors (checkout Chrles Petty http://visionarypropertyinvestments.com/). Charles is an expert real estate investor and his systems have worked for many people.

I’ll be posting again soon.

Barack Obama - Yes We Can Video (Inspires hope for us all)

While I call this the Black Genius Network and encourage and celebrate African American success, I also believe in the words of this song. I believe we can overcome financial illiteracy for everyone regardless of race. I believe in the politics of hope. That’s the purpose of this blog. I believe that we can and in fact we must take the initiative to enter the world economy. I believe we can and must be take responsibility for our economic development. And I believe we can create a new America that will benefit everyone.Vote for hope, take responsiblity for your own economics and believe. Yes we can.P.S

Vote on Feb 5 for the candidate of yoru choice. (Go Barack)

Why Americans are Going Broke

Read an interesting article today from Curious Cat Investing and Economy about why Americans are going broke. The entrey started with this comment

“The average household owes 20 percent more than it makes each year. The personal savings rate is in negative territory. Record numbers of Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, and millions more are struggling to keep up with their monthly bills and obligations. ”

Curious Cat commented that American are going broke because Americans but a bunch of stuff they can’t afford and don’t need and the government encourages irresponsible spending.

I could agree more and I actually think it will get much worse. As baby boomers retire, the pressure on the economy will continue to grow and economic growth will stagnate as more and more boomers take their money out of the system.

Are you prepared, do you have a game plan. Are you studying money and wealth to see if there are opportunities for you in the future. If not, start now. We are dedicated to help. So start today by join the Black Genius Network

Dedicated to your success and education.