Slow and Steady

I am sure that many of us, as we have attempted to purchase assets and things not so asset-like, have had to fill out that little form affectionately known as a credit application. Many times, they are shoved under our noses as we just about to check out of a department store. Often we are told, just as we decide on a living room suite, that we are entitled to purchase it with, “No Interest! No Payments ‘Till March 2010!” The truth of the matter is, we should have all been schooled in the area of credit and how it works before we ever filled out that first application.

It’s a good idea to start building your credit slowly but surely.  Building credit is like letting a pot of gumbo slow-cook over a fire.  The taste will be long-lasting and you’ll appreciate it for a long time. If you are looking to establish credit for the first time or even looking to rebuild your credit, you could begin by visiting your local credit union or bank and telling them that you would like to establish credit by taking out an unsecured loan for a relatively small amount. 

There's a little-girl memory that Najoh Tita-Reid recounts, as a way of explaining what's behind a new campaign by the nation's biggest advertiser.

As a young child in suburban Pittsburgh, she goes to play dolls with her neighbors, all of them white. Her doll stands out with its black color and features, and one girl says pointedly: "Najoh, our dolls can't play with yours."

Why not? "Because your doll is ugly," comes the reply.

Fast-forward 30 years, and Tita-Reid is helping lead a Procter & Gamble Co. campaign called "My Black is Beautiful," which combines marketing with forums meant to foster dialogue about black women and the way they are portrayed in popular culture.

The marketers involved say it's a movement, not just advertising. But it aims at a group with growing buying power, estimated at more than $400 billion and is tied to brands including Olay skin care, Pantene shampoo, CoverGirl cosmetics, and Always and Tampax feminine care products.

Many times, a parent will ask me when I think is a good time to get their children involved in the subject of investing. I really believe that the age at which a parent gets the ball rolling with their child depends on the financial maturity of the child. For some, it can be as early as 10 years old, although some may not be ready to broach the subject of investing until they reach college. Now, you may already be turned off to this article, because you either feel like you are not a college student, or you don’t have one yet. No worries, this is still applicable to people who are not college students.

So let’s assume you are about to send your child away to college this fall and you want to equip him/her with, at least, a start in investing. One of the first things that I tell a teenager who wants to get educated about the stock market is to start researching a company that they are already interested in. For example, they know the latest sneakers that are popular right now. They also know which videogames are extremely hot. I tell them to find out the company’s stock symbol and go to a familiar website such as Yahoo Finance and start looking at how that stock performed in the past month or six months or for the past year. Once they do that I'll ask them questions like why do you think the company did really well in a particular month? And sometimes they’ll answer, “Well, it could be because on a particular date, Dwayne Wade came out with a brand-new version of a sneaker. Before you know it, he or she will be on Google for at least an hour trying to find out trends in what has been going on with that company or when certain models were released. They engage in their own research and go on a wild goose chase and they don't even realize that they are doing what a lot of financial analysts are doing (and getting paid for) everyday. 

Most of you have been watching politicians shuck and jive in predictable ways to try and manage the even more predictable liquidity crisis that has terrorized our financial markets.  As a supporter of Senator Barack Obama, I am hopeful that this will serve as the final signal to America that a Harvard graduate with extensive Economics training might be a better choice than a mediocre student who claims to know nothing about the economy.  I won’t even mention Sarah Palin, who now makes George Bush the runner-up in the “Unfit to Manage a Burger King” contest.  I am not big on Obama-mania, but I tend to be big on common sense.  It is also telling that many Americans would sacrifice our nation’s future in order to avoid the discomfort of seeing a Black man in the White House.   OK, let me shut up before I say what I REALLY think.