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When Donald King retired from the Army in 2002, he looked at starting his own business. With the skills he learned from 20 years in the military, this University of Maryland graduate believed he was ready for the challenges of entrepreneurship.
A death in the family is always emotionally demanding, but it can have lasting effects on a family’s finances. Jannis Briggs Milhouse of Columbia, South Carolina, knows this firsthand. For the past six years, the 45-year-old widow and mother of three has relied heavily on her late husband’s survivor benefits.
Franchising is hardly a new topic for our editors to tackle. This sector is and has been an important contributor to the U.S. economy, and if tapped into properly, it can serve as a viable avenue through which African Americans can build wealth. In our inaugural issue of Black Enterprise, in August 1970, we produced a franchising feature that included such high-profile entrepreneurs at the time as then Pittsburgh Steelers superstar Brady Keys, former astronaut Ed Dwight, and rock and roll legend Fats Domino. And 23 years ago, in our September 1987 issue, we viewed franchising as such a significant area of opportunity that we developed our black enterprise Franchise 50 to help readers identify franchise businesses that offered the lowest barriers to entry.
With unpredictable shifts in the stock market this year, it’s a good time for investors to seek out dividends stocks—the distributions of cash many companies pay shareholders on a quarterly basis.
Creditors use a calculation called a credit utilization ratio, which makes up 30% of your FICO score. Next to your payment history (which makes up 35%), it has the second-largest impact on your credit score. A credit utilization ratio measures how much credit you’re using compared to how much you have available. Your credit score decreases as your balance increases in relation to your total available credit. The more unused credit you have, the better your score because it shows creditors that you’re responsible. This makes you a better credit risk. It's best to utilize no more than 10% to 30% of your available credit.
