There’s rich, and then there’s wealth. And make no mistake, one can be fleeting and the other can be life changing for you and your future generations.  This issue is all about wealth—we’re talking legacy-building, peace-of-mind-bringing, multigenerational wealth.  That’s the goal. But the truth is, African-Americans seem to be slipping further away from it. A recent study by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based social policy research center, shows that the racial wealth gap has widened to its highest levels. Worse, this gulf has expanded even as the income gap remained stable. There are income gaps, and then there are cavernous wealth chasms—mostly measured by assets such as savings, home values, retirement accounts and credit card debt.


By those measures, Blacks still lag significantly behind White and Hispanic families, according to the Urban Institute’s analysis of Federal Reserve data.  Specifically, in terms of dollar value, the average White family had about $632,000 in wealth compared to $110,000 for the average Hispanic family and only $98,000 for the average Black family, a Black-White disparity of more than $500,000.


The implications of such a widening wealth gap are too great to ignore. To help remedy the situation and reverse course, we’re launching our first-ever EBONY Black Wealth Challenge with a mission to get 1 million households on board and committed to taking concrete steps over the next 12 months to improve their wealth status.  Starting with this issue, we lay out the blueprint for your wealth-building success, giving you tools and advice to change your mindset, habits, spending and savings patterns, debt levels, retirement cushion and, ultimately, your net worth. Take our Wealth Challenge Pledge online and join our community of others committed to achieving financial prosperity. And join our Twitter chats to share your challenges and get up-todate information and advice. It’s time to take action to choose wealth, not just rich, and we’re all