July 7, 2009
June 28, 2009
Black News: Listen to Obama’s Message on Healthcare Reform
Can’t get enough of Obama? Click the image below to listen to President Obama’s address and conversation on healthcare reform. The President wants to make healthcare reform a top priority over the next several years.
June 8, 2009
Dr Boyce Watkins: Our Nation’s Addiction to Credit Cards
by Dr Boyce Watkins
In an interview with NPR’s Michel Martin, I explained how credit card companies are really financial drug dealers. While this comparison might initially seem out of the park, it is actually quite appropriate: Credit is like a drug: it makes you feel good, and it is difficult for most Americans to feel secure or comfortable without it. Also like a drug, credit can be abused. Americans are hooked on consumption and credit card companies are willing to serve us our drug to the point of financial ruin.
The difference between financial drugs and medical drugs is that most financial drugs are legal, no matter how harmful they might be. In 1979, Congress got rid of usury laws, allowing credit card companies to charge darn near any interest rate they wanted, any fee they felt applicable and any penalty they felt you deserved. In other words, the legalized financial drug dealers were allowed to run rampant and sell as much of their product as the addicts could consume.
May 29, 2009
The World is Changing for Autoworkers
There was a time, not very long ago, when getting a job on the production line at a big automaker meant an instant ticket to the American dream, even for someone with little formal education. Not anymore.
"The minute you signed the paper, you were instantly vaulted into the middle class," said Mike Smith, director of Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit, named for the founder of the United Auto Workers, the union that represents auto workers.
A shrinking paycheck. As the auto industry undergoes a sea change, the government has demanded that Chrysler and General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) bring their labor costs in line with foreign competitors operating non-unionfactories in the U.S.
Today, an entry-level auto-worker will be making $14 an hour, compared to the $28 "base rate" the job had earned before, according to a summary of Chrysler’s contract agreement.
May 19, 2009
Love and Money: How a couple works it out
In this episode of Financial Lovemaking, Dr. Boyce and S. Tia Brown speak with Jason Robertson, a former New York Yankee, and his fiance Marshawn Evans. Marshawn is a prominent attorney and sports marketing agent. Jason was a top draft pick and all-American baseball player, who learned the flaws of improperly managing his money. He has since recovered financially and become one of the top entrepreneurs in the United States. The couple discusses the challenges in their relationship and ways they plan to make good financial love. When is the best time to start talking about money in a relationship? What if your partner is not as comfortable talking about money as you are? What role does trust play in the formation of a financial lovemaking relationship with another person?
May 1, 2009
Love and Money: Are Rich Guys allowed to cheat?
In this episode of "Financial Lovemaking", Dr Boyce and Tia break down whether or not wealthy men are allowed to make mistakes that men with less money are not allowed to make. Dr. Boyce brings up Kobe Bryant as an example of men with power and wealth who are sometimes given the right to do things that other men might not be allowed to do.
Click the image to watch!
April 18, 2009
Black Money: Dr Boyce Watkins Talks Rushcard in the NY Times
In a speech today, the Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke talked about the need to “strike the right balance: to strive for the highest standards of consumer protection without eliminating the beneficial effects of responsible innovation on consumer choice and access to credit.”
Where exactly regulators think that “balance” lies has varied greatly over time. Throughout American history, politicians and their constituents have viewed access to credit as alternatively empowering and exploitative. We can’t seem to decide: Is making credit available to “subprime” borrowers helping them, or taking advantage of their ignorance?
April 12, 2009
Black Money: Tax Mistakes You Want to Avoid
Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines. Tax Day is less than a week away.
But as you race toward the finish line, be mindful of common tax-filing errors. Some mistakes could cost you money. Others could raise red flags at the IRS. Tax software will do math and point out tax breaks you might overlook, but these programs are only as good as the information you enter.
Here are some common last-minute blunders, and how to avoid them:
Automatically not itemizing.
A 2002 study by the Government Accountability Office found that more than 2 million taxpayers who claimed the standard deduction could have lowered their tax bills by itemizing.
Deductible expenses include interest on your mortgage, property taxes, charitable contributions and unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjustable gross income.
Ordinarily, that threshold puts the medical-expense deduction out of reach for most taxpayers who have employer-provided health care.
But the economic downturn has led employers to shift more of the cost of health care to their workers in the form of higher deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. That means more taxpayers could rack up enough unreimbursed expenses to claim the deduction, says Mary Canning, dean of the schools of taxation and accounting at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
Automatically itemizing.
April 11, 2009
Your Black Money: The Cost of Raising Children
By: Sarah Horner
April 8, 2009
An article from MSNBC.com entitled, "Budgeting for Baby: What does it really cost?" outlines exactly how much having and raising a child will cost you.
"If you’ve never been a budgeter, now’s the time for a financial reckoning. Experts recommend that parents-to-be and new parents dedicate themselves to whittling down their credit-card debt (ideally — and here’s some tough love — to zero), while at the same time, building an emergencies-only savings account of six to nine months’ worth of expenses. Do whatever it takes to meet this goal: Spend on a cash-only basis and write down every expense — or use a free online spending tracker like Quicken.Intuit.com or Wesabe.com — so you have a visceral idea of where your money goes. And be prepared to sacrifice. "If you want to prioritize the expense of a child, well, you may not need as many minutes on your cell phone and you may not need as many meals in a restaurant," says Chatzky. "And by the way, you’re not going to be going to restaurants much once you have a child, anyway!""
To read the entire article, Click here
March 9, 2009
President Obama’s Economic Pandora
By Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.DrBoyceMoney.com
Let’s be clear: This recession has become President Barack Obama’s personal War on Terror. Like the War on Terror, the enemy is evasive, the challenge is global, international cooperation is necessary, and the battle is unlike any other in our nation’s history. Wars are good for political business: when people get scared, politicians get a blank check to fulfill their legislative agenda. After 9/11, President Bush used fear to get the entire nation to sign onto the Patriot Act, and years later, we are wondering if someone is going to tap our cell phones and illegally imprison us for not eating our Freedom Fries. Bad legislation is like an STD: you can pick it up with a snap decision, but you pay the price for the next 20 years.
February 4, 2009
Your Black Money: Big Test on Stimulus for Barack Obama
A contentious debate over a "Buy American" provision in the economic stimulus package poses an early test for President Obama on both domestic politics and foreign policy.
The Senate this week is considering an $885 billion bill designed to help mend the ailing economy, which requires all "manufactured goods" purchased with stimulus money to be made in the United States. The House already has approved a narrower bill mandating the use of domestic iron and steel.
To supporters, including labor unions that helped the Democrats retake the White House last year, a "Buy American" requirement is just common sense at a time of economic crisis and rising unemployment. Factories have been hemorrhaging jobs for years; manufacturing employment is now 12.9 million, down from 17.2 million at the end of 2000. If Congress doesn’t insist upon the use of U.S.-made materials, taxpayer funds could line the pockets of European or Chinese workers rather than hard-hit Americans.
February 2, 2009
Blacks Lost $213 Billion during Subprime Lending Crisis
The social advocacy group United for a Fair Economy just released a study stating that the cost of the mortgage crisis has been $213 Billion to minority groups. The cost was calculated over the 8 years of the Bush Administration.
“Millions of African Americans lost their homes as a result of predatory lending and complicated contracts,” says Dr. Boyce Watkins, Finance Professor at Syracuse University. “This was a double whammy for senior citizens, including my own grandfather.”
The report was entitled “Foreclsure: State of the Dream”. In fact, the study concludes that the impact of the crisis on the Black community was “the most massive loss of wealth for African Americans in U.S. history.”
January 31, 2009
How the Recession Might Help us
By Dr. Boyce Watkins
I hate being the doctor who has to tell the patient he has cancer, but the truth usually sets you free (or so my mother told me): We are in the midst of an economic bloodbath. It’s tough to argue that an economy which shrinks by an annualized rate of 5% is still healthy. It’s hard to tell someone that 7.2% unemployment, with the most job losses since 1945, is a good thing. A 4,000 point drop in the Dow is nothing to sneeze at, even if you have plenty of tissue. Times are tough, we know that.
But if we focus hard enough, we might be able to find a few bright sides to all this. With hopes that no one chooses to kill the messenger, I am going to give it a shot.
1) It could always be much worse.
The United States has, according to some, the strongest economy in the world. Our economy could shrink like Rush Limbaugh’s body on drugs and still be disgustingly rich compared to the rest of the world. Don’t believe me? Consider the “fast-growing” Chinese economy, the one that everyone thinks is going to outpace the United States in the next few years. Our annual tax revenues are nearly 4 times greater than China’s ($2.5 Trillion vs. $670 Billion) and they have over 4 times more people than we do (300 million vs. 1.3 Billion). In other words, our per capita tax receipts are over 16 times greater than China’s. So, we’re far better off than most of the world, even when we’re broke.
2) If there were ever an argument for getting out of Iraq, this might be it.
It’s hard to declare war on random countries if you don’t have the money to do it. War is big business and attacking other countries is a huge financial investment. If you don’t think war is about money, then you may want to take a couple of Political Science and History classes. Perhaps these troubles at home will keep us from creating trouble abroad, since Americans have lost patience with irresponsible, arrogant war-mongering. The Obama stimulus plan is asking for over $800 Billion dollars to boost our economy. We’ve already spent nearly $600 Billion in Iraq. Rather than declaring War on Terror, President Obama has declared War on the Recession, which seems to be a far better investment.
3) If you want to buy cheap stocks or real estate, this is the time to do it.
When the market rises, everyone wants to buy stocks. People forget that you shouldn’t buy stocks when prices are high, you buy when the prices are low. Companies with plenty of cash are grabbing investment and real estate bargains that were hardly available a year ago. You should be doing the same if you can afford to do it. Investors who purchases stocks after major market declines tend to do much better than those who buy during booms. You hear me Warren Buffet?
4) Struggle makes us FOCUSED.
Although I tend to be a hardcore capitalist, a part of me misses the activism of the 1960s, when people cared about more than making a dollar. OK, I wasn’t around in the 1960s, but I’ve watched enough old movies. Going through tough times not only teaches one to pursue a higher purpose in life, it also leads individuals to more carefully scrutinize the state of affairs in our government. In fact, I dare to argue that the financial crisis was just what Barack Obama needed to secure his election over John McCain. Economic prosperity allows us the luxury of choosing our politicians based on silly issues, like gay marriage (as we did in 2004). When we are worried about putting food on the table, we look beyond the silliness and choose the most qualified and most intelligent person for the job (after ensuring that he knows Africa really is a continent). Finally, tough economic times make you more responsible in your own money management, as the threat of financial insecurity keeps us all on high alert.
Those are my points, so again, please don’t kill the messenger. I certainly do not celebrate a weak economy, but I am a firm believer that focusing too much on the door that shuts keeps us from appreciating the ones that just opened. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel, a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, and….well, you get the point. It’s the toughness of tough times that make the good times good. Keep hanging in there, it’ll be ok.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “Financial Lovemaking 101: Merging Assets with Your Partner in ways that Feel Good.” For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.
January 29, 2009
Dr Boyce Watkins speaks to AOL Black Voices about Accomplishing Goals
Smart Money Tips With Dr. Boyce Watkins
Posted Jan 27th 2009 6:34PM by Alexis Stodghill
Filed under: Money Talks
By Alexis Garrett Stodghill, BlackVoices.com
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a renowned scholar and speaker in the area of finance. As an African-American financial expert, Dr. Watkins has made it his personal mission to educate our community through writing books and essays, making media appearances, public speaking and more — so that we may become more empowered with knowledge when it comes to the all-mighty dollar. BlackVoices.com asked the doctor to share his wisdom and advice for folks seeking tips to successfully navigate the current economic storm. According to Dr. Watkins, it’s still possible to get your finances in order — in fact, it’s imperative.
As a black finance expert, what is the most common problem you see in the black community when it comes to personal finance management?
The most common problem is that historically, African Americans have been excluded from the opportunity to build wealth. Money was made from our labor, but we never got much of it. That led to a laborer mentality in African-Americans that taught us how to go out and get jobs rather than learning the art of CREATING jobs. This problem was further exacerbated by the fact that building a company requires capital, which we typically don’t have. Most African-Americans have far lower inheritance levels than whites, and this impacts your economic opportunities in life. Also, when you’ve never had much money, you are usually not very good at managing it, so we are as bad as the rest of America when it comes to our spending, saving, investing and borrowing habits.
How would you suggest that someone with little knowledge of personal finance get started on the road to financial stability?
First, get educated. Empower yourself with financial literacy. The greatest university in the world is called Google.com. You can research any topic you want. Secondly, start small. You don’t have to conquer the world in two steps. Just start by saving 10% of your income. You might say you don’t have money to save, but you actually do. If your boss came into your office and gave you a 10% paycut, you’d find a way to survive. Find a way to learn to save. Finally, get a “side hustle.” Challenge yourself to find small ways to supplement your income. The riskiest thing to do in this economy is to get all of your personal income from one source.
You have two college degrees, a master’s degree and a PhD. What would you say is the relationship between level of education and income?
Education not only gives you many opportunities to earn more money, you usually earn more money with less work, doing a job that you might actually like. Personally, education was the difference for me between being financially well off and living a life of poverty. Education also provides job security, which is often overlooked. Autoworkers, for example, were always able to make high wages with little education. But once the Big Three started to buckle, they were stuck with unskilled labor opportunities. Everyone should get as much education as they can get, since education can be a path to both a wealthy bank account and a wealthy life.
Would you share some tips for sound money management in 2009?
Last Updated on Thursday, 29 January 2009 20:53
January 21, 2009
Tough Questions for New Treasury Secretary
Taxes aren’t the only question facing Tim Geithner.
Geithner, President Obama’s choice as Treasury secretary, will appear before the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday morning.
The hearing was tentatively set for last week, but it was pushed back after it came to light that Geithner — who as Treasury secretary would oversee the IRS — had failed to pay in timely fashion some $34,023 in self-employment taxes between 2001 and 2004.
Obama’s team dismissed the tax problems as a “common mistake,” and Geithner has since paid the required taxes and interest. Obama’s chief of staff said Sunday the president “absolutely” supports the nominee.
November 20, 2008
November 19, 2008
Should You Panic While Country Experiences Financial Crisis
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
http://www.boycewatkins.com/
If you listen carefully to the words of Treasury Secretary Henry “Hank” Paulson and Ben “Big Ben” Bernanke (chairman of the Federal Reserve) you might notice a trend in their language. The word “confidence” is used a lot when they speak. Many of their monetary proposals are not necessarily valuable for their financial power, but also for their psychological power.
Some of you may wonder what confidence has to do with anything. After all, if you’re broke, confidence doesn’t exactly put money in your pocket. If you’re 100 pounds overweight, confidence won’t help you win the Olympic 100 meter dash. When you are flying on a crashing plane, confidence doesn’t keep the plane from slamming into the ground. But confidence is important to an economy, and one of the most significant drivers of economic growth. In fact, over confidence has driven US economic growth for the past 10 years. Here are some reasons that confidence matters in the minds of Hank and Big Ben:
1) Confident consumers spend money
If you think you might lose your job next year, are you going to max out your credit cards? I certainly hope not. If you are worried about being able to make ends meet, are you going to buy that big screen TV? Not unless you want your wife to leave you. So, even if it doesn’t hold any truth, the mere forecast of a weak economy is enough to make many Americans hold off on consumer spending, one of the great driving forces of the American financial system.
2) Confident companies invest money and hire workers
Investments involve risk. Your hunch may work out, and it may not. If you don’t believe the economy is getting better, you are not going to consider taking that risk. No one plans to go to the beach if the weather man says that it’s going to rain. When economic rain is in the forecast, companies pull out their umbrellas and hold off on new projects. This reduces the number of jobs in the economy, because nearly every job created in America is the result of someone making an investment.
3) Confident Americans do not take their money out of banks
In case you didn’t know, your bank does not have your money. Your money is part of a large base of financial capital that is loaned out to individuals and consumers seeking to get a good return on their investment. So, without investing, your bank would have no interest in paying you any interest at all. So if, say, 30% of all customers of the same bank decide to get their money out at the same time, the bank would have serious financial problems. It is a lack of confidence that could cause customers to “run” on their bank and take out their money.
4) Confident investors keep their money in the stock market
The stock market is a place where fortunes are made and lost. Some part of that fortune is psychological, given that no asset can have a value which exceeds that which someone is willing to pay for it. When investors lose confidence, they take their money out of the stock market, and reductions in demand for stocks lead to massive paper losses in the market. Additionally, most Americans are “momentum traders”, meaning that when the market goes up, they tend to buy more, and when it goes down, they tend to sell. History shows that it is actually the opposite approach that tends to work best.
5) Confident banks make loans
Banks have to keep a certain portion of their funds on hand at all times to meet federal requirements. If they are fearful that their customers might come and demand their cash, they hold onto their capital to ensure that it is available. If they are afraid that their borrowing customers will not be able to repay loans due to a weak economy, they also hold back on issuing new loans. The truth is that when economic forecasts are grim, conservative bankers become even more fearful than the rest of us.
The bottom line of this article is that confidence matters. So, the next time you hear Ben Bernanke give a speech, you can be confident that he is going to use language that makes you feel more secure. Whether you choose to believe those words is up to you.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “Financial Lovemaking 101: Merging Assets with Your Partner in Ways that Feel Good”. For more information, please visit http://boycewatikns.com/
September 2, 2008
Your Black Enterprise: Long-Term Problems for the US Economy
Part 1 of this video is below, highlighting potential long-term problems for the US economy.
Part 2 of the video is below
August 31, 2008
Your Black People: How to Get Rich
Let’s face it; we all don’t make millions of dollars a year, and the odds are that most of us won’t receive a large windfall inheritance either. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t build sizeable wealth — it’ll just take some time. If you’re young, time is on your side and retiring a millionaire is achievable. Read on for some tips on how to increase your savings and work toward this goal.
Stop Senseless Spending
Unfortunately, people have a habit of spending their hard-earned cash on goods and services that they don’t need. Even relatively small expenses, such as indulging in a gourmet coffee from a premium coffee shop every morning, can really add up — and decrease the amount of money you can save. Larger expenses on luxury items also prevent many people from putting money into savings each month.
That said, it’s important to realize that it’s usually not just one item or one habit that must be cut out in order to accumulate sizable wealth (although it may be). Usually, in order to become wealthy one must adopt a disciplined lifestyle and budget. This means that people who are looking to build their nest eggs need to make sacrifices somewhere — this may mean eating out less frequently, using public transportation to get to work and/or cutting back on extra, unnecessary expenses.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go out and have fun, but you should try to do things in moderation — and set a budget if you hope to save money. Fortunately, particularly if you start saving young, saving up a sizeable nest egg only requires a few minor (and relatively painless) adjustments to your spending habits.
Fund Retirement Plans ASAP
When individuals earn money, their first responsibility is to pay current expenses such as the rent or mortgage expenses, food and other necessities. Once these expenses have been covered, the next step should be to fund a retirement plan or some other tax-advantaged vehicle.
Unfortunately, retirement planning is an afterthought for many young people. Here’s why it shouldn’t be: funding a 401(k) and/or a IRA early on in life means you can contribute less money overall and actually end up with significantly more in the end than someone who put in much more money but started later.
August 28, 2008
Money Tips for Young People: Avoiding Paris Hiltonitis
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
There’s nothing wrong with a little shine in your life, especially since you’ve worked hard to get that degree. But attempting to become Paris Hilton on your first job can have you rolling on your way to bankruptcy court. Whether you earn $10 per year or $10 million, you are a financial slave if you are not saving, investing and letting your money grow. As I like to say, “To have nice stuff at 23 is human, but to be rich at 90 is divine.”
As a finance professor and your personal financial physician, let me give you a list of rules to live by, so that your grand kids will be riding high on the hog after you have cooked up the pork chops:
Rule #1: The easiest way to stay poor is to never own anything. Renting an apartment will help your landlord get a house, not you. Buying cars helps the auto dealer get a new limo, not you. Get on the other side of that deal! Buy a house as quick as you can, buy stocks, buy bonds, own ASSETS. Don’t believe the hype about having a high paycheck; It means nothing if you don’t own anything.
Rule #2: The quickest path to being owned by someone is to always work for someone else. Don’t just try to find a job, put yourself in position to CREATE a job. Start your own business as soon as you can. Remember: when you are working for someone else, they are usually earning $10 for every dollar they pay you. That is what they would technically call “getting screwed.”
Rule #3: Save at least 10% of your money every time you get paid, NO EXCUSES. You should pay yourself first by having the money come right out of your check. A person who saves $200 per week starting at the age of 22 and invests that money in the stock market for a 10% return every year will have roughly $43,000 by the time they are 32, $434,000 by the time they are 52, and $1.6 million when they are 65. That’s enough money to help Britney Spears find a replacement for Kevin.
Rule #4: Create multiple streams of income. Your salary should only be one. I don’t care if you sell comic books, Avon or rotten fish. Remember the words of a relatively wise hip-hop star: “If the grapes don’t sell, I dry ‘em up and sell raisins.” Financial side shows provide job security, in case your boss hands you the pink slip. If you are smart, you can hand the pink slip to your boss.
Rule #5: Love is creepy sometimes, so watch who you hook up with. Merging your money with someone is like having sex with them: it can be an amazing experience, or it can leave you burned and bitter. Whether it is marriage or starting a business together, only merge your money with someone who cares about your best interest. In other words, don’t waste your life with losers.
Read my lips and follow these tips, and your future will have so much shine that Stevie Wonder will need to put on his sunglasses. Now that’s what I call a bright future!
August 18, 2008
Your Black Money: Rapper 50 Cent Claims to Have a "Diverse Portfolio"
When it comes to records, 50 Cent knows what it takes to go platinum. But in a mine shaft thousands of feet below the surface of South Africa, he’s got metal, not vinyl, on his mind.
Last May, 50 paid a visit to billionaire mining baron Patrice Motsepe in South Africa. Flanked by select members of their respective entourages, the unlikely duo descended into a subterranean trove of platinum, palladium and iridium, growing like moss on the earth’s warm innards. A spectacular backdrop for a bling-drenched music video, to be sure.
But 50 was there for other business: to forge a joint venture with Motsepe that could soon bring him an equity stake in the mine–and 50 Cent-branded platinum to the world.
“Things that people wouldn’t actually expect me to be involved in,” 50 muses a few weeks later, reminiscing on his trip. “I’ve got a diverse portfolio.”
August 17, 2008
Your Black Money: Getting Debts Under Control
Mary Pollack has fallen into a hole and she’s not sure how to start digging out — or even where to find a shovel. After two divorces, one bankruptcy and a round of credit counseling, she hasn’t been able to bring her balance sheet into positive territory.
Mary earns an after-tax weekly salary of $675 and gets weekly child support of $142; her income averages $3,462 a month.
Her monthly expenses: $1,485 for rent, $175 for utilities, $275 for a car payment, $361 for car insurance, gasoline and maintenance, $415 for her son’s college tuition, $124 for cable television and Internet service, $350 for grocery bills and $100 for dining out. That’s a total of $3,285 — and it doesn’t include incidental costs for clothing, hair care, gifts or entertainment.
She’s also overdue on several bills, including $282 for medical costs, $233 for a student loan and $80 for 2-year-old phone charges.
August 13, 2008
Your Black World: NCAA v. Fantasy Football and CBS Sports
by Marc Isenberg
NFL fantasy has been a big deal for several years. But college football fantasy has lagged, not because there isn’t any interest, but because fantasy sports is seemingly at odds with NCAA bylaws covering both gambling and marketing. While the NFL and many other pro leagues partnered with sites offering fantasy sports, the NCAA has steered clear.
(Warning: In order to sound slightly intelligent on this weighty legal matter, I consulted a top expert with extensive knowledge of sports and entertainment law. Not just any lawyer…my wife, Debbie, who provided the verbiage in the following paragraph.)
In June the Supreme Court refused to review the 8th Circuit’s holding in CDM Fantasy Sports Corp. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) that the First Amendment rights of a fantasy league operator to publish news and statistics outweigh MLBAM and players’ state law rights of publicity to their names.
Back to plain English after the jump.
Continue reading “CBS to NCAA: Uh, we’re in business to make money” »
August 10, 2008
Your Black News: Economy Making the Rich Homeless Too
Craig Miller left Florida this year with $3,000, a borrowed RV and a dream of helping people find meaning in their lives.
After losing their home to foreclosure, Craig and Paige Miller joined a burgeoning group of upper class homeless people who have good jobs and educations but live in their vehicles.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)
His savings may have struck some as a considerable sum. But for a family of four on their way to California, it wasn’t even close to adequate. The family, once intent on selling the RV for the owner, now lives in it.
They rise early and drive to the beach for breakfast before Miller drops off his wife at her new job and heads to the library where the kids can play and read while he tries to rebuild his business. After he picks up his wife, they head out again, sometimes back to the beach for dinner before ending at the Santa Barbara, Calif., parking lot where they sleep for the night.
“You think you have everything,” Miller said, “but you can lose income tomorrow.”
Miller once had a four-bedroom home, complete with pool and spa, when he lived in Orlando and worked as a life coach and ran his business. He’s now part of what appears to growing number of Americans who have been forced out of their comfortable lives and into their vehicles by the continuing foreclosure crisis and slumping economy.
They’re the upper-class homeless, the middle-class homeless or the new homeless, depending on whom you talk to.
