Learning the financial facts of life should be a family affair. Develop a financial education plan so that every member understands the markets, financial terms, and calculations. Every couple needs to learn how to communicate, compromise, and commit to the process of joint money management. Building wealth requires teamwork. It is critical to introduce the children in your life (which may include nieces, nephews, cousins, and grandchildren) to the fundamental principles of money management. Sending a child off to a financial camp, taking field trips, and reading newsletters geared toward youth are activities that can make learning the basics exciting and fun. Employing such methods will also help children foster a healthy respect for money, responsibility, and hard work.

We’ve outlined the process to help guide you on the path of financial empowerment and wealth building.
It’s a continuum that requires focus, energy, and patience. So remain committed and don’t let any step
along the way frustrate you. Just hang in there and you’ll achieve your ultimate goal.

Commitment: Pledge to pursue a program of wealth building. Take the Declaration of Financial Empowerment as a hard and fast vow, and follow our 10 key principles of wealth building.

Knowledge: Learn the fundamentals of sound money management and investing. Take time to regularly read the business section of your local newspaper or favorite news website. Developing this understanding will allow you to take decisive action on your own behalf and ask more informed questions.

Investment: Take action and put into practice all that you have learned. Use a portion of your disposable income to make regular deposits into both your savings and investment accounts. Establish a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

Portfolio Management: As you continue to gain financial knowledge and experience, make sure that you regularly allocate your assets and develop a diversified portfolio based on your goals, age, and risk tolerance.

Wealth: Successful portfolio management enables you to build wealth. But it will take careful estate, insurance, and tax planning to secure all that you’ve been able to accumulate.

Complete the Circle Through Reinvestment

By gaining true wealth, you can reinvest to support the next generation of children, businesses, and your community.
It’s through these means that we can make sure our dollars are used most effectively to support the black community.

Declaration of Financial Empowerment

Today is the day I make a change and take control of my financial destiny. In order to attain a measure of success, power, and wealth, I shall uphold the following principles of sound money management and investing. I have committed to this unwavering personal covenant as a means of laying a strong, unbreakable foundation for building and preserving wealth, not only for me and my family but for my community as well.

To underscore the importance of such participation, we are calling on all African Americans to realize their full financial potential through the Wealth for Life Initiative. Created in 2000, the Wealth for Life Initiative is nothing less than an ongoing campaign aimed at challenging you to join the wealth building movement by committing to specific principles of disciplined saving and investing.

To help guide your efforts, we have broken down the intimidating complexities of finance into 10 accessible principles of wealth accumulation. We call it the BLACK ENTERPRISE Declaration of Financial Empowerment (DOFE). Commit to these principles by signing the enclosed DOFE certificate, then put them into practice and begin amassing wealth for yourself and your family. To help you follow through with your commitment, we have developed this Wealth Building Guide. We’ll introduce you to each of our principles and provide actionable steps to help you get started. You’ll also find additional resources and tools to help you get motivated, stay focused, and take action.

What’s more, to help illustrate just how effective the DOFE principles have been, every month you’ll find coverage of the Wealth for Life Initiative in BLACK ENTERPRISE. You’ll find profiles of individuals, much like yourself, who committed to make a change in their financial lives by following the DOFE principles, and who are now reaping their rewards. In addition, you’ll find a profile of our Financial Fitness contest winner, where we award $2,000 and a consultation with a financial planner to help someone get their finances on track, or move to the next level of sophistication in their financial planning. Our coverage in the magazine is complemented by the insightful content and interactive resources available on our website, www.blackenterprise.com.

Ultimately the wealth building process begins with you. Make today the day that you take control of your financial destiny. By choosing to build lasting personal wealth, you will be providing a greater measure of financial empowerment for yourself and your family. Let your signature be your pledge, and let this guide serve as your road map to a prosperous future.

It’s working and we’re thrilled. Indeed we’re proud to say that the Wealth For Life Initiative, which debuted in January 2000, is making a real difference in many people’s financial lives. We regularly learn of individuals who have applied the 10 wealth building principles that anchor our Declaration of Financial Empowerment to move closer to their financial goals. But our work doesn’t stop there. We want to do even better.

That’s why we are introducing a new and improved Declaration of Financial Empowerment. There are a couple of themes that we want to reinforce. Overall, we restated the Declaration, making it more direct and assertive, beginning each statement with “I will… .” As you review the principles and think about making a change, we didn’t want to leave the importance of making a personal commitment open to interpretation.

We’re also introducing two new principles that can be described as ways to play good financial defense. For instance we chose to highlight the importance of maintaining a diversified portfolio in our new Principle # 4.: I will save at least 10% of my income. As you invest, it’s critical that you periodically assess whether your portfolio is in sync with your risk tolerance and ultimate goals.

It was for similar reasons that we introduced Principle # 6: I will devise an investment plan for my
retirement needs and children’s education. Events such as Hurricane Katrina sounded the alarm—It’s
important to contemplate whether you’re financially prepared to handle an emergency of any sort. For without
the proper safeguards, any progress made toward building wealth can be wiped out in an instant.

We made other minor adjustments, but the mission behind the Wealth for Life Initiative remains the
same—to help you become wealthy. We hope the new Declaration of Financial Empowerment will be even more effective in meeting the goal Publisher Earl G. Graves Sr. envisioned for African Americans: to create
wealth by building the corner stones of economic empowerment through education, equity, enterprise, and
excellence. The time is now.

—The Editors