We should forget those outdated ideas that African American are less likely to succeed. There are many investment possibilities available to them. From real estate to mutual funds to bonds to stocks; there are so many possibilities available to us. Basic rules are also applicable to them, such as steady contribution to their 401(k), preferably to the point where their companies stop matching. It is also important to have planned contribution to our Roth IRA.
Unfortunately, we could be somewhat disappointed to know that none of the wealthiest black list includes people who rely only on 401(k) and Roth IRA. Typical black families keep their wealth inside their houses and having a single house isn’t the key to true wealth. Here are four things African Americans should do:
1. Find products that sell:
It is widely demonstrated that people can make money by buying and selling everything that’s profitable. As an example, eBay isn’t just a simple online garage sale. The website will sell nearly one billion items and more than 200 million people are involved. This means, we should be intellectually capable to define products that may sell well. We could do this by checking items that seem to be more successful in the market.
Selling products can be easier than providing service, because we don’t have to interact too much with clients. It is also important to accumulate extra fund to improve our business.
2. Study the market:
We should study the market carefully and asses how much we are able to sell in the market. They need to study personal spending habits in the area. The biggest expense could be car, house rent, clothing and food. These are basic necessities in modern lives and we should also know other commonly consumed less essential things.
There could be more impulsive buyers in the market and this allows define the type of spending habit we will encounter. People may make more conscious decision when they go shopping and we should know what it is.
3. Create mini goals:
For many people, the goal of earning $240,000 per year can seem to be unachievable. However, it may sound more reasonable if we seek to get $20,000 each month or $60,000 each quarter. This is also equal to $5,000 week, which can be achieved when we sell 500 items each week with $10 profit each.
This is an effective method to divide and conquer our goals. Excluding weekend, we would only need to sell 100 items each day, which is possible if our shops are visited by enough people. Things can get easier if we add more things in our store that attract further attention.
4. Stay loyal:
If we should stay loyal to our original goal, target market and geographical location. As an example, we could favour specific suburb area, because it has people with higher spending capacity. Sales could be low initially, but as we remain in the same place, we would start to gain recognition and people will know us more.