National Wealth Tour 2009 Notes

For those of you who know me, you know that I am a huge advocate of increasing financial literacy so that we may all become more financially empowered. I’ve decided to conduct a small research study to ascertain the depth of information given at these seminars, whether or not I feel it’s appropriate for the audience, and whether or not the information is solid and can be implemented by those listening.

Ephren W. Taylor II is the youngest African-American CEO of any publicly traded company ever City Capital Corporation (stock symbol:CTCC). Described as “walking history” by popular radio show host Tom Joyner, Taylor started his first business venture at age 12, when he began making video games. By age 17, he built a multi-million dollar technology company; GoFerretGo.com. His career highlights include the following:
• Made first million by 16
• Youngest Black CEO of a Publicly Traded Company
• Oversees over 250 Million in Assets
• Starting Investment Clubs at schools across the nation
• Developing national business plan competition for university students
• Started business ventures at the age of 12
• Works with superstar entertainers such as Snoop Dogg and Fat Joe
• Diverse client list ranges from Stock Market Day Traders to Hip Hop Icons

This year, he created his Wealth Tour Live 2009 in which he seeks to help everyone “rebuild America’s promise by making socially conscious investments”. In Atlanta, Ephren made several appearances promoting his tour on local radio and television. He sold the audience on his success and how he would impart strategies to help the everyday person “unlock the doors to financial freedom”. However, I have to say that this did not occur at the level I was hoping for and was a little disappointed. Ignoring my professional opinion, I will leave you with some of the advice given during the presentation.

The first speaker, Delatorro McNeal II, an author and friend of Ephran’s, dropped the following jewels on why most people can’t change their current economic situation:

• “Today’s problems can’t be solved with yesterday’s thinking”—Albert Einstein
• “Build your dreams or else someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
• We are made in God’s image and he gave us the power to GO, be productive, and successful.
• Too many of us are losing our dreams due to NSF
o NSFaith
o NSFocus
o NSFollow-through

• Don’t doubt in darkness what God has promised you in the light”

Ephram’s Presentation Notes

Wealth—Is a measure of one’s ability to generate income, without direct involvement.

How Wealth Doesn’t Work
• Putting money under your mattress (doing this is a result of having a poverty mindset).
• Bank CD’s+ Predatory Savings Plans (interest rate too low)
• Annuities (cash flow is too low and only makes money for the seller)
• Reverse Mortgages (hefty fees and not good for seniors)
• Common Mutual Funds (returns are too low)
• Low Yield Bonds (returns are too low)
• Any investments in which you receive less than a 7% rate of return, because most of your return is consumed through higher inflation; thereby resulting in a minimal return to you.

Economic Survival 101
• Expenses—Control IT
• Debt—Re-Allocate IT
• Credit—Let’s Rehab IT
• College—Spend for IT
• Cash—Let’s Engage IT

Recession Wealth 101
• Real Estate—Tangible Investment
• Royalties—perpetual Income
o Write a book
o Buy and lease out a house
o Licensing rights
• Energy—Fuel for your portfolio (consider buying a gas station with a group of people)
• Agriculture—Cash cows, literally, consider buying a cow
• Acquisitions—Ownership beats jobership (not really a word..I know)

Retirement Checkup
• Average pension is underfunded
• Traditional Retirement
o Included your 401K, pension, and Social Security.
o However, this strategy has put some in a financial prison and forced them to work during retirement.

Retire Now, Not Later
You Need:
• Self-directed retirement—using your IRA/cash to invest in higher return producing assets.
• Acquire wealth producing assets
o Small business (Subway food chain or whatever your dreams are)
• High yield debentures (can be risky)
• Royalties—book, licensing, etc. (Hard for most people to get a book published)
• Energy—invest in what people struggle with the most i.e., gas (get a gas station or buy an apartment building)

My overall thoughts were that while the seminar was inspiring and challenged us to do better with our money, the investment strategies presented are very risky for the novice investor and should not be entered in to without thorough due diligence and professional advice. Basically, he shunned traditional savings vehicles, which may be good for a novice investor (as they are more liquid) and may be needed as a part of one’s entire portfolio. In my opinion, he’s asking people (in a down economy) to make risky investments. We all know that there is no reward without risk, but not everyone has the same level of risk tolerance or assets to even invest in such an option. Also, he didn’t tell you how to flip real estate or land a book deal, like he has, which is another aspect of the seminar that I felt was not well delivered. You can’t get people excited to see how life could be for them without giving them the tools to build a bridge to get there.


That’s just my two cents. Let me know what you think about the seminars.

The Wealth Tour Live 2009 will be in Baltimore, MD from November 15-18.

Please visit http://www.wealthtourlive.com/index.php for further information.

My Call to Action

I studied Finance at a university known for producing Wall Street investment bankers. After graduating from college and spending seven years in commercial lending, underwriting multi-million dollar deals, many have asked what prompted my career change to personal financial planning.

It started with some troubling statistics, some of which haven’t changed much over the years:

• African American investors earning over $55,000, per year, have roughly $48,000 in savings compared to $100,000 for Whites. This means that Blacks are saving roughly 52% less than their counterparts (as noted in the 2006 Ariel-Schwab Black Investor Survey).

• The median net worth for African American and Hispanic families is between “$20,600 and $18,600, respectively as compared to $140,700 for Whites. At this rate, it would take 634 years for us to achieve wealth equality”, as noted by Dedrick Muhammad in his 2008 article “The economy discriminates against blacks, Latinos”.

• In the wake of the subprime crisis, minorities experienced the greatest decrease in home-value wealth. African Americans lost $71-$92 billion and Hispanics lost $75-98 billion, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. The United for a Fair Economy non-profit organization described this decline as the “greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern U.S. history”.

These statistics were alarming and called me to action. In our communities, we have strong family ties and none of us want to see our parents (or ourselves) retire in poverty. However, this is the risk we face if we don’t step up our level of savings and investing. This not only affects our generation, but could preclude us from establishing generational wealth.

Despite the lower rate of savings, many minorities report they are willing to make the commitment to improve their situations, but need more guidance and education to help them reach their goals. This is where I come in. I have made the commitment to focus my efforts on increasing wealth among minorities through education and financial consulting.

This blog will serve to introduce you to me and my beliefs about the color of money. The goal is that this blog will provide a place where minorities can open up and start to discuss our feelings about money, ways to increase our wealth, and some of the issues that impede us from reaching our personal financial goals. Lastly, I will be sharing my tips on how to save money, many of which have saved me and my family members thousands of dollars over the years.