Grandma's Hands

Families are our first schools. For many of us, we have learned how (not) to make decisions about from a loved one. And guess what? Decisions about money and/or wealth is what economics is all about! Yup, economics is a decision science.

Sometimes it's hard for families to make good decisions. This is disproportionately so for families of color. Many black families may lack the knowledge to know the difference between money and wealth. Or, they may lack the resources to acquire it. Whatever the case, while individual families have different wealth levels, many families of color have suffered economically due to institutionalized constraints. So when we get good information (like this blog) it's important to spread the word!

Big Mama & Big Papa, circa 1926, Lone Oak, TX

Each March, my mother's family descends upon Mineral Wells, Texas to celebrate our matriarch, Opal V. Anders. Usually, it's an afternoon church service that always coincides with her birthday. This year, Big Mama would have been 106. I am too young to have known her, but man, the kinfolk make a big deal about her as if she just left us!! Why is that? Socially, I know Big Mama was deep in the church and established an annual fellowship event in the late 1970s to celebrate the good life she's been blessed with. What I do know of Big Mama - the woman - was passed down orally to me from her oldest girl who became my grandmother!

So if Big Mama was such a big deal, what can I - a humble economist - learn from her life? Let's be honest, most black people descend from a Big Mama who had it rough and make a way out of no way. Cliche? Maybe a bit stereotypical, but hackneyed, I think not. Her generation achieved no small feat. They literally paved the way for my grandmother's generation to acquire wealth in ways black people never had access to in this country. Both women represent the dynamic American economy: Big Mama lived in a time when people reared larger families without debit cards, degrees or the promises of a pension. My grandmother reaped the benefits of integration and set the standard for her offspring on how to approach banking, education and retirement. I learned a lot from sorting through old family documents and talking to older relatives, but there's also value in digging through the National Archives. In just a few days, data from the 1940 census will be released for the first time, allowing us to get a glimpse as to what life was like for our predecessors! Exciting stuff!

From the work of my grandma's hands to yours: it's important to share good practices. Women especially are ideal to spreading economic knowledge because they generally raise the children and help the husband make decisions. I am now reaping benefits of the good decisions my grandmothers made and bequeathed. Feel free to add to this list and pass it along to a friend who can relate!

Grandma's Hands To Do List for ECONtrepreneurs

• Education creates options.
• Save, save save! Get an interest-bearing account and forget about it! My grandmother left a Money Market account to me, so I'll be sure to nurture it and pass it's value on!
• Know your number. How much are you worth? Take all of your monthly income and subtract everything you have to pay out during a month. What's left is your net worth. You want this number to be positive and big. 
• Know your other number: the credit score! My grandmother had great credit and her relationship with her bank left me some handsome options, including refinancing my car loan. I found out my credit score in the process and set a goal to lower it even more. Check out my previous blog entries on the Credit Score by searching for the label 'Credit Watch'.
• Track your spending. I can't stress this enough to my clients. With the available technology, a good smartphone app can make this an inexpensive and hopefully a fun task!
• Own something. Your own land, home, or business. 

prosperity,

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