Life is not fair. What else is new? Blacks are under-invested. Racism is a socio economic system based on the human construct of race. For centuries, colonial whites negated blacks meaningful opportunities to participate as owners in the economy. No wonder blacks lag financially when compared to whites. Complaining about racism is not the solution. The solution for blacks, and for anyone else looking to become wealthy, is to become more productive and start investing.
TakeSlap offers spicy food for thought. We toss words together in a stream of consciousness to slap your primate brain into innovative thinking. Consume it raw at your own risk. Season it to taste. Heat it up in your brain. Be sure to disagree with whatever does not agree with your cognitive digestive tolerance. Take it with a grain of salt as a free sample of our consulting service. Share it with friends and frenemies. We're all in this together. Enjoy.
Three Takeaways:
Returns on investment do not discriminate.
Whether you are white, black, brown, or polka-dot, if you are the owner of a valuable investment, you stand to profit from it. To become wealthy, you must first become the owner of valuable property.
Think about slaves for a moment. Why were slaves poor? It wasn't for being lazy or for not working hard. Slaves were poor because they did not have property rights. Not only did slaves lack the right to be paid for their work, they were not allowed to own property or hold property rights.
Capitalism is all about private property rights.
Capitalism is based on property owned by private individuals rather than by the public governments. No one can can get ahead in capitalism without property rights. Without property rights, you are essentially a modern day slave. This is important to stress. Slaves were poor not only because they were not paid for their work. Slaves were poor because they did not have property rights.
There are three main ways of acquiring property rights or ownership: inheritance, marriage, and investing. If you are not in line to inherit wealth or to marry a wealthy person, focus on investing. First and foremost, invest in yourself and your skills. Invest in your safety, health, and education so that you can increase your productivity.
Get over racism and slavery.
To end slavery, stop seeing people as members of different "races". We are all members of the only one race: the human race. So called "racial" features are just ancestral adaptations to the environment. The most critical environmental factor contributing to the different "races" is ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The higher the average UV index is in a region of the planet, the darker the skin of its ancestral inhabitants was. The lower the UV, the lighter the ancestral skin was. Skin color is an adaptation to UV radiation. All other "racial" features are also ancestral environmental adaptations. No big deal. Regardless of the color of our skin or outer features of our "shells", we are all members of the same race: the human race.
Get over slavery too. Slavery was universal in human history. All major civilizations were built by slaves. Slaves were initially of the same geographic area of their owners. Since both slaves and owners came from regions with similar UV rates and climatological factors, they were of the same "race". Eventually, with advances in transportation and transcontinental colonization, the slave market expanded across different regions. The chapter about Europeans slaving Africans is not the beginning of slavery, but is rather its final chapter. The United States did not invent slavery, but rather ended it.
Be proud
Be proud of your ancestral physical characteristics whatever they may be. No one is better than anyone else. Simply put some groups won wars and colonized others. Winners get to write the history books, the dictionaries, the fairy tales, the religious fictions, and everything else. Understand what happened in the past. Laugh about it. Free yourself from colonial crap.
Take good care of your inner self, and of your outer "shell". It is all one organism and all goes together. We are all storytelling primates (humans), lucky to be alive only if for a very brief time. We are living the best times of humanity, and working hard on making them even better. Yes, there are painful things going on all around the world. Yes, there are threats to our democracy like Putin and Trump. There will always be problems in life. Pain is a constant in life. Suffering is optional and kind of fun too.
Get into the stock market
The stock market is the easiest and most accessible market to acquire investments and valuable property rights. By investing in the stock market, you get to own stocks (pieces or shares) of publicly traded companies. Valuations will go up and will go down. Some companies will fail and others will succeed.
Don't get discouraged by bad market days or seasons. Eventually, in the long run, the market goes up. Smart investors see "bad" market days as good opportunities to buy stocks at reduced prices. Market corrections are discount sales. Market crashes as clearance sales.
Set aside a portion of your income to invest in the stock market. Three "secrets" to stock market investing are: (i) diversification; (ii) "un-timing"; and (iii) value investing.
Diversification
Spread your risk. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Instead of investing all your money in one company (e.g. Apple), or in one sector (e.g. technology), invest in many companies across different sectors (e.g. energy, technology, biomedical, retail, real estate, etc.).
When you diversify, you will not make as much money as you would if your stock pick was right, but you will not lose as much as you would if your pick was wrong. Not losing too much money in the short run is fundamental to making lots of money in the long run. Small gains compound into a snowball effect over time.
Remember that outcomes are outside of your control. Only the process of smart investing is under your control. And that smart smart approach begins with diversification.
Un-timing
Spread your investments consistently over time. Do not try to time the market. Choose a weekly amount and invest it "blindly" in a well diversified portfolio whether the market goes up or down. In the long run, that strategy will make you money.
Regardless of seasonal corrections and crashes, the stock market goes up over time. It's not magic. It's the result of increases in knowledge, productivity, population, and inflation. People keep learning new things and developing new products and services. People keep having babies and immigrants keep coming in. Fiat currencies like the dollar keep depreciating over time, which creates inflation (increased prices). All these factors combine to make the stock market value increase over time.
Value investing
Avoid the "get rich quick" mindset. Buy stocks from solid and high quality exchange traded funds (ETFs). Google "ETF investing" to learn more.
Think of companies as money-making machines. Figure out how much money a company is making, and how much it can make in the future. Decide whether buying the company is a good value or not. If unsure, go for ETF that contain many many good companies picked by experts.
Value investing takes learning. Learn from industry experts. There is plenty of good and free advice online from reputable sources. Google "value investing", start reading, follow links, and connect the dots.
Learn as much as you can. Consult qualified professionals
The stock market is where great fortunes are made. We are heading into troubled economic times ahead with a recession around the corner. This will be a great opportunity to buy great companies for pennies on the dollar. Follow the three "secrets" above to build your portfolio. Remember, the value of your holdings will go down often. Eventually, the tide will turn and the market will be up again.
Don't just believe Slap Consulting. Consult qualified professionals. At a minimum, Google quality information from reliable sources.
Go for it. Tell us what you think.
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