Financial Advice for the Collegiate Investor

There is no real secret to investing that lays out a path that you can jump on and ride the waves of success. You have to first and foremost set in motion a sufficient plan of action for multiple generations ahead of time. If you are not beginning with the end in mind towards your speculative investment endeavors you can forget it. You must always weigh the entire costs of the vision you intend to build. Don’t let your grandson or great-grandson get laughed at because he wasn’t able to finish what you started today. Your plan must stretch that far in distance and take into consideration education, patience, discipline, and a big-picture approach to a sustainable future. It is just not enough to save and invest in stocks if you do not know why you are doing it. Just keep things very simple and realize that you need a sound intellectual framework for making great decisions that can last many generations.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish? Lest Haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it began to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. ~ Luke 14: 28-30

It is common knowledge that as a community we need to boost our savings rate; and this can only happen to the degree that we learn how to save. One of the main prerequisites that will help us do this is discipline. Wealth, unless used with the utmost care, will destroy our discipline. So, all of this talk about having a community of $1 trillion dollars in disposable income means nothing; unless there is an unified stance to discipline our spending habits and save our hard earned money. Yes, I said hard earned because God is not dropping out of the sky a trillion dollars into our community. We must reframe our thinking towards saving and Investing for future generations to come. Fannie Hurst said: “Some people think they are worth a lot of money just because they have it”. Having all the money in world won’t do you a bit of good unless you know what to do with it.

I heard and I forget: I see and I remember; I do and I understand
~ Chinese Proverb

In capturing the essence of Investing you must understand the meanings behind the words that you read. You don’t read about investments in financial magazines to invest but to gain a deeper perspective into creating, building, and launching your own “Blueprint” concerning wealth. What good it is to read and speculate about financial investments if you have been programmed to spend every penny you get. You have to sacrifice in order to make progress and that could mean waging war on your own ignorance. You cannot replace conditioning with information, so you must learn how to recondition your mind.

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country
~ Anonymous

If Investing sounds mighty and interesting to you why not start in your own backyard. According to HBCUmoney.com there are 21 African-American owned banks totaling approximately $4-$5 Billion dollars. Although, this happens to be 0.43% of our $1.1 trillion dollar buying power, we still need to understand the need for investments in our own “Black Financial Institutions”. If we were to add an additional 100+ HBCU Institutions to our banking community we have ourselves a great structure upon which to begin rebuilding our foundation. I not in no way discrediting all of the accomplishments from the last 400 + years; but you must come to understand the importance of the now moment and right now we need accountability, structure, governance, and Leadership on all levels of the spectrum. Below, I have outlined 5 concepts that will help to steer you in the right direction concerning your financial success.

• Keep Learning (The more you learn the more you earn)
• Study Emerging Market Economies (Singapore, Brazil, China, Indonesia)
• Convert to Mobile Banking (Get a Bank App & become aware of your actions)
• Save like there is no tomorrow (Stop squandering your money)
• Fight for your financial independence (Focus on growing & maintaining your wealth)

Money is shy and elusive. It must be wooed and won by methods not unlike those used by a determined lover….. Riches are shy timid. They have to be attracted.
~ Napoleon Hill