Reposition Yourself by T.D. Jakes

Author:T.D. Jakes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The More the Merrier

Please realize that you are not alone. I have seen businesspeople—affluent types with button-down collars, applying for top-level jobs—who aren’t what they seem. For when you run a credit check, which incidentally is becoming a more routine part of the hiring process, you are shocked that little Mr. Button-Down or Ms. Business Suit is over his or her head in debt and has a credit report that looks like it just contracted leprosy!

From white collars to blue collars, there lies a problem. Big spenders overspend and little ones do, too. And God help the shirts and blouses that hide beneath them a trembling heart that has had more than one crying session, appearing to have it together outwardly but inwardly aware that they are in a financial crisis. I mean, just look at the gross national debt in this country. The whole country is struggling to some degree. From the welfare program to the Social Security program, we are hearing a lot of talk about overspending. Companies are downsizing, politicians are raising money as fast as an auctioneer can speak. Each and every one of them is trying to make sure that they are budgeted for the long haul and not the short run.

White and black, Hispanic and Asian-American, we must all learn to help one another stop the poor spending habits that keep us ensnared in debt.

I, as an African-American, am particularly concerned about the spending habits among people of color. There is an epidemic of poor spending choices and even poorer investing habits for African-Americans in this country. According to Target Market News, a national marketing firm that specializes in tracking the spending habits of blacks, we spend more annually on depreciable goods such as cars, clothes, liquor, and personal-care items than other groups. When our nation’s economy took a downturn in 2002 after 9/11, blacks proceeded to spend $22.9 billion on clothes, over $11 billion on furniture (often to furnish rented homes), and over $3 billion on electronic appliances and toys. We spent almost $47 billion on cars in 2005, so much that some auto-makers such as Lincoln have targeted us as a niche market, creating tricked-out SUVs with multiple plasma screens, DVD players, and Play Stations. According to the National Urban League’s report “The State of Black America 2004,” fewer than 50 percent of black fam ilies own their homes, compared to more than 70 percent of whites.

Where have we cut back? Sadly enough, African-Americans bought fewer books from 2000 to 2003. According to a reporter for the Digital Digest (based in Detroit, where the population is 80 percent black, as is the reporter): “This shortsighted behavior, motivated by a desire for instant gratification and social acceptance, comes at the expense of our future” (www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2006/02/black_spending_habits.php). Amen! I heartily agree and believe that we must sound the alarm and wake up from our reckless disregard for our futures.

We are not the only group of people that has to struggle with such statistics and disheartening trends.

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