I was searching the Internet and found statistics from 2003 but still a great reference on how my Black America spends and our buying power. Since this information is 4 years old I am certain the numbers have doubled. I will try to find some new data on what the statistics say for 2006-2007 but I really don’t need any statistic to tell me that Black People Spend A Lot of Money!

I found this information from here: http://blackinformant.com/2005/10/05/the-buying-power-of-black-america-detailed/

CONSUMER EXPENDITURE DATA
From “The Buying Power of Black America”

THE BUYING
POWER OF
BLACK AMERICA - 2003

This is the eleventh edition of Target Market News’ annual report on African-American
consumers. Again, most of the increases were in categories most influenced by women’s
purchases. The economic slowdown continues and surely have an impact on future spending.
In 2003 black households had $656 billion in earned income.

Apparel Products and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $23.0 billion
Appliances. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 billion
Beverages (Alcoholic) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 billion
Beverages (Non-Alcoholic) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 billion
Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 million
Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.6 billion*
Computers and Related Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.9 billion
Consumer Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 billion
Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12.3 billion
Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 billion
Entertainment and Leisure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7 billion
Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.5 billion
Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.9 billion
Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.0 billion
Household Furnishings and Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.9 billion
Housewares. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973 million
Housing and related charges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145.2 billion
Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.2 billion
Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.0 billion
Personal Care Products and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5 billion
Sports and Recreational Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900 million
Telephone Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.4 billion
Tobacco Products and Smoking Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,8 billion
Toys, Games and Pets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 billion
Transportation, Travel and Lodging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8 billion

I notice a lot of African Americans play the daily lottery religiously in hopes of winning big. They go down to the corner store, liquor store, market, etc and play all of their favorite lucky numbers. What is interesting is that some people play the same numbers everyday in hopes that someday when their number hits they will become rich! Now I am not a lottery player thus I am not an expert on the subject, but why would anyone play the same number everyday? What kind of strategy is that? Is that insane or what? Where do these hopefuls get all their faith that “one day MY number is going to hit”?

The odds of winning the lottery are not good and to tell you the truth as much money as some people spend playing everyday they could be using that money in a variety of much better investments that stand a much greater chance of generating revenue. Check this website I found which calculates the odds of winning the daily lottery.

http://www.webmath.com/lottery.html

Take $1 dollar a day for a month and you have $30 dollars. Take that $30 dollars and buy a share of stock (after during your research and due diligence of course) you would fare much better than gambling your money in the daily lottery. Go to any number of discount online brokerage firms, I use to setup a brokerage account free. Once you have your account setup you just have to fund it through any number of ways. You can start off with as little as $20 and just work your way up. I would recommend anyone to invest in the stock market as opposed to gambling your money away on the lottery, but of course this is just my opinion and to each his own!

So we need to create a budget for ourselves. I know this does not sound like fun but I will make it quick and painless. No one wants to create a budget and sometimes it can be even harder to stick to it. One of the tricks to carrying out a successful budget plan is to think about the end result. What are your goals? Do you want to earn 1 million dollars, $100,000, etc. Whatever the goals are having a budget, being disciplined and sticking to it will only help ensure you succeed in reaching what you desire. Even wealthy people have budgets although their budgets are much much bigger they still have a limit to what they are willing to spend.

The other thing about having a budget is that the better you get at meeting your budgeting goals each month you will find that it is not so hard. Before you know it you can increase your monthly budget to allow you to spend a little more on some things that you want just to give yourself a treat-but only do this after you have consecutively mastered your budget and have the discipline to stay on it for the long haul. Every now and then it’s very good to reward yourself and I would encourage it.

Okay so let’s get right into it, I did a search online and found a pretty friendly budget on Kiplinger’s website. (Please note I am merely putting a link to their website I take no credit for their work). You will find this budget tool very handy and easy to use.

http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/budget/

Go to this link, print out the budget and begin by estimating what your expenses would be for the month on the PROJECTED column. At the end of the month record what the ACTUAL expenses were and then record what the difference was between what you estimated and what the actual amount was. Then take into consideration how much you bring home each month and how much realistically you think you can save/invest each month. Remember if you are really serious about generating wealth you should do three things: SAVE and INVEST and GIVE TO CHARITY.

I will pick up on these three principals on my next entry and complete our discussion of carrying out our budget with some additional tips.

In my opinion the first step in obtaining wealth is preparation. You have to start thinking that you have already been blessed with the wealth that you desire. Start dressing for success, start thinking successful. Generate a positive pleasant attitude towards people. Now when I say “dress for success” you do not have to go out and get all the most expensive clothes, because hey you are still working on building your income to where you want it. Bargain shop and find the best deals you can, shop on ebay for clothes, second hand stores, Macy’s when there is a discount whatever the case may be, but whatever you do dress neat and clean and project a successful professional appearance. This will go a long way in your attitude towards having what you desire and it will attract like minded individuals to you that may be able to help you on your journey and vice versa.

These steps are in no particular order so just do what you can with what you have at the moment. For example, if you already have a nice set of business attire then there is no need to do any further shopping around, just keep it neat everyday and you will notice that attitude will translate into the work that you do and the energy you bring when working with people.

Financial Preparation Steps
1.Create a budget
2.Get out of Debt
3.How much money can you save/invest per month?
4.What is your financial goals?
5.Education
6.Start taking action

Keep in mind I am no financial expert I am a regular guy who works a 9-5 job everyday. Everything that I write here as advice/tips are the same things I am doing myself to achieve my goals. Maybe in this way it seems more believable that it is possible to achieve your dreams and reach your goals no matter how big. You will not get rich by luck, only through education, hard work, and a strong passion to take control of your finances and accumulate large wealth. Start believing in yourself and start thinking like a rich person. No matter what your current situation, no matter how hard you think you have it, if you can read and write you can make money the only limitation is the one you place on yourself. No one else can hold you back but YOU!!!!

Welcome to my Blog. I created this Blog as a way to help me stay organized on my path to building great wealth and financial freedom. I also wanted to share my experiences my mistakes and my successes in hopes that others will learn from this and venture off to pursue their own journey of wealth building. The title of my Blog is “Wealth Building For Blacks” because I want to hopefully target Blacks/African Americans to really take their finances seriously. Too many African Americans have a terrible mentality when it comes to money and that is due to many factors including education, social issues, etc. We will have plenty of time to discuss the many issues that affect African Americans and the financial problems that many of us face, but let’s instead of always complaining, stating the many problems, who might be the blame, etc it is time for some answers and it is time for some solutions.

On this Blog you will NOT here me complaining about the “white man is to blame” or “society is designed to keep Blacks and minorities down”. If that is what you want to hear you have come to the wrong place. I will present from my point of view solutions, answers, strategies, tips, and ways to hopefully build financial wealth. I am no expert of finance, I do not have a lot of money “YET” but what I do have is a great attitude towards achieving my goals and dreams. I will put the work in to accomplish my goals and I will not quit until they have been realized. It will be a journey worth taking, what else do I have to lose? I have everything to gain and so do you! I encourage anyone and everyone to read my Blog but I specifically want to try and help African Americans because as a Black person myself I feel I have a responsibility to try and help out. This is no disrespect to any other race of people and please feel more than welcome to read and learn my points of views but much of the content will be from the perspective of a Black person in America and what they have to go through and/or from their current financial situation how it may be improved. I can not promise that everyone that reads this Blog will become wealthy because I do not know what your attitude is, or your desire and passion to really have financial freedom. I do not know your circumstances and what resources you have available, but I will try my best to provide tips, interesting thoughts, resources and my experience on how I got started, a strategy to build your wealth and how to maintain and increase your income. Thanks for joining me on this journey.