One of the favorite parts of my work week is chatting with my good friend Warren Ballentine on his nationally syndicated radio show each Thursday. His Truth Fighters show currently reaches more than 3 million weekly through Radio One Inc.’s network and XM and Sirius Radio. This week, in addition to talking about my exclusive BlackEnterprise.com interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, we discussed the topic of utmost importance to our audience and his listeners: money — how to spend it, how to invest it. In fact, I have decided to use my weekly radio segment for the month of February to promote BLACK ENTERPRISE
Empowerment Month.This concept is derived from our February issue currently on newsstands. Our editors have developed “The Power Issue” to help our readers find ways to advance their business, professional and financial lives. Why did we develop this special issue? We want you to make a commitment to invest in yourself and take action.
We started with money matters because that’s the basis for improving your standing in every aspect of your life. According to the 2010 Ariel Black Investor Survey, African Americans consistently saved and invested less than whites of similar incomes over the past decade. As our CEO Earl “Butch” Graves, Jr. wrote in a recent Executive Memo: “Make money work for you, not against you. We must reverse this trend by taking a disciplined approach.” He
calls for us to build a nest egg through a consistently investing in employee-sponsored retirment plans such as 401(k)s and 403 (b)s ass well as repairing and monitoring our credit to gain maximum financial flexibility.I told Warren that BLACK ENTERPRISE is extremely fortunate to have the finest collection of financial journalists and experts dedicated to providing our audience with the latest information and tools. Our Multimedia Personal Finance Editorial Director John Simons, Multimedia Consumer Affairs Content Producer Sheiresa
Ngo and Multimedia Personal Finance Content Producer LaToya M. Smith guide our readers daily with online content as well as monthly through our magazine’s Money and Wealth for Life sections. You can also find John each week on our Black Enterprise Business Report television show sharing his expertise as part of the program’s regular Wealth for Life segment. For our February issue, I charged John and Sheiresa with developing 10 power moves to improve our readers’ finances.