I really appreciated/found really helpful the tip of the "seven bank accounts" (Jordan Page, FunCheapOrFree)(also not connected in any way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auzLhKvsxnQ
(Ramsey a similar type of management the "envelope system").
Edit: from what he sometimes says on his radio show, some schools in the USA 'teach' his program/system/7-step-process. I find this amazing and I wish that this (or something similar) is properly taught to every school on the planet.
This information is not available to the black community. Now, obviously, any black person is technically capable of tuning into the Fox News channel where Dave Ramsey has a show, or dial their radio to conservative radio stations where Dave Ramsey is broadcast. But in practical terms, Dave Ramsey is unavailable to black people. And they are actively discouraged by our culture from even finding out that he exists.
I became aware of this in a discussion with a black friend i which she believed something that was "sort of" untrue. It was something approximately like she believed that white people grow up in homes where certain concepts like basic personal finance are taught. This was so bizarre sounding to me, because my actual life experience was so different. I grew up in a poor "white trash" household. My parents were/are buried in debt up to their necks. Basic personal finance, the Ramsey flavor or otherwise, was simply not in the ether. I didn't grow up with Fox on the TV either, or anything even pretending to be news. I still don't generally watch Fox News, but am a Ramsey fan.
I believe my friend was technically wrong, but maybe directionally right. She was directionally right in the sense that even though Dave Ramsey wasn't in my household, it was culturally at least acceptable. If you're far enough left wing to where you can't bring yourself to listen to Fox News/conservative radio, you can maybe get by with Clark Howard combined with Planet Money. Still extremely white in culture and audience.
I hope we figure out some way to get past this. Because even the pitiful tools that are available aren't available to everyone.
I can see the appeal of a straight talker and pull up by your boot straps personality such as Ramsey. He has helped a lot of people. His style does not work for me personally.
I personally think the financial problems (in general) with black people (aside from racism) in the US stems from two related things: the lack of a coherent family structure and lack of intergenerational wealth transfer. The single-mother family poverty angle is pretty clear: Single mothers have low availability and are poor, and poor people tend to make poor financial decisions due to exploitation and desperation. The intergenerational wealth transfer angle is if you have something of value you are going to transfer to the next generation, you are going to spend time teaching them how to care for it. Think transferring a business, property, and other assets. Legacy is a real important thing for most people. This is something rare for black Americans. Unfortunately in a lot of cases the thing that is transferred between generations are debt obligations.
I’m not discounting your life experience but statistically speaking most black households do not experience Fox News. And if you lived in an environment where most black households did experience Fox News, then that might point to an even more skewed environment, statistically speaking.
You say “aside from racism” and then point to two things directly attributable to racist policies.
You're also denying people of color agency by saying that unless personal finance education comes to them, they have no hope of finding it by themselves.
Nobody yet sent me back in time.
And the curriculum in my high school is still the same.
3hrs of Latin out of 27hrs per week for 3 years.
3hrs of Latin out of 30hrs per week for 2 years.
More than 10% of my high school was Latin.
When I took ASL I remember them saying the reason ASL was accepted as a foreign language was because it has a culture that was taught along with it. It may or may not be taken seriously when taught, but a lot of people grow up in a bubble and don't get exposed to other cultures.
I've lived with a bunch of people that were fluent in English, but it wasn't their first language and others who were English native but studied foreign languages more seriously. Learning another language makes you think more about your own language. One friend said her teacher gave her a basics of English book early on when studying Japanese.
For example, I had French classes for 4 years and can't speak, read or write it to save my life. The teacher wasn't bad and kept telling me, who knows maybe one day I'd move to France. As a kid, I thought the whole thing was ridiculous. I was quite happy where I was.
Better option is to give ppl, at any point in their life, a route to learning when they discover a knowledge gap.
As did happen when I was sent off for work in France.