H.R. 40 the only piece of legislation in Congress that was introduced to the House of Representatives on 1/3/2019. 400 years since the first slave touched shores of Virginia, for a black American to think that they’ll live to see reparations in my personal opinion is like a person winning the lottery; which statically speaking you have a better chance of being murdered than actually winning. The sad truth, but there is genuine hope in the name of H.R. 40 Commission to study & develop reparation proposals for African-Americans Act. Which is honest to God the short name for it, the actual name is so on the nose that(I do not intent to be racist nor sexist when I say this but honest to God) you know a black woman came up with this title. Matter of fact…

Official Title as Introduced

To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

The bill was cosponsor by Tulsi Gabbard U.S. Representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district and 117 other senators. Sheila Jackson Lee has been in office since 1995 since then has sponsored four (H.R. 710, H.R. 78, H.R. 6510, H.R. 4510) that are now laws.                                                                                    

As, of 4/9/ 2019 S.1083 – H.R. 40 reached the House of Senate,with sixteen candidates that support the creation of the commission that would make recommendations about how to compensate black Americans for those injustices. Candidates such as Sen. Cory Booker who is the sponsor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris, and Senator Amy Klobuchar the four of the sixteen.(yes, 16 is a far cry from the 118 from previous) Sen. Booker has been in office since 2013 and has sponsored thirty eight ( S.24, S.3554, and S.1580) that are now laws and is now looking to tackle the biggest bill in recent black history.                        

Now, forty acres and mule.

We’ve been taught in school that forty acres and a mule policy came from the Union General William T. Sherman in 1865. That account is half-right: Sherman prescribed the 40 acres in that Order, but not the mule. The mule would come later. With 20 leaders of the black community in Savannah, Ga., where Sherman was headquartered following his famous March to the Sea. Today, we commonly use the phrase “40 acres and a mule,” but few of us have read the Order itself. Three of its parts are relevant here.

Section one bears repeating in full: “The islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.”

Section two and three sound like something Malcolm X preached about but that’s opinionated. Section two these new communities would be governed by black people themselves, on the island or settlements hereafter to be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro [sic] is free and must be dealt with as such.

Section Three specifies the allocation of land: each family shall have a plot of not more than (40) acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, with not more than 800 feet water front, in the possession of which land the military authorities will afford them protection, until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title.

With this Order, 400,000 acres of land — “a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. John’s River in Florida, including Georgia’s Sea Islands and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast.”

“A calculation that King made if America would stand by its promise of 40 acres and a mule, which is $20 a week since the late 1700s for 4 million slaves. The total was $800 billion, which in today’s dollars is $6.4 trillion” said atlantablackstar in May 2015.

Building wealth there a few ways of doing so, Business ownership, Home Equity, Life insurance, Proper Retirement Planning, and Intellectual Property. Before you do any of that you have to know it all starts with your mentality or else what good is having a million dollars with a pay check to pay check mindset. You not getting far and will be right back where you started. So, yes changing your broke mindset to a wealthy or millionaire mindset. Words I’m sure you’ve read more than a few times from post of Facebook, Instagram or other social media outlets, but your mindset is key you can’t build wealth with a broke mentality. Start with stop looking at the job you dread/ hate dragging yourself to just so you can pay rent, eat, buy the latest expensive things, going out every weekend cause work really stressed you out, supporting yourself and kid(s) or other spouse/ family member’s.

Look at it as a launching pad to your dreams, instead of spending your check as soon as you get, try budgeting and if that doesn’t or hasn’t worked try living below your means. Look at your expenses everything your paying for monthly or buy daily, do you really need all those things? Could you cut back on this and live with that so you can have some extra money at the end of the month? Money you could use to better yourself whether it be a book or seminar at least your doing it for you and the betterment of your future. Save your extra money, build your credit, ‘sheesh fix your credit, then invest your money to buy books, stocks, or your own business. Use your pay check to pave the way to financial freedom.

Business ownership There are plenty of business ventures you can do while still working the nine to five, like dropshipping, vending machine, home flipping/ home renovation company, ATM business, your own candy, clothes, shoes, tech( a trillion dollar industry), juice brand, dry cleaning, podcast, freelance( which is intellectual property, and a business), trucking without having a cdl, being a driver or dispatcher, natural make up, staffing agency, and YouTube. Yes, your YouTube channel can be a business just ask 180lawco. LLC. – Aiden Kramer’s YouTube, Graham Stephan, and Minority Mindset. For business advice as far as structuring your business please refer to an attorney…..not necessarily Aiden Kramer though she is an attorney …in Utah but if you live there then by all means and her channel does have plenty of business related information but so does Mark J. Kohler but he’s a CPA- certified public accountant. Just to name a few that I like.

Wholesaling is good way to get into real estate you just have to find a motivated seller and investor/ buyer which the second part isnt actually the hard part of the whole process. You can actually learn a lot from the pronoun Youtube University which i initially took as a joke in passing, but I’m guessing that’s an actual thing.

Life insurance is possibly the most easily attainable, vehicle to set up future generations with some capital is to have a good life insurance policy. Life insurance is paying a relatively small sum premiums on a monthly basis in return for a large payout to the beneficiaries upon the death of the policy holder. Life insurance offers security in the case the unforeseen, to provide for those who depend on you. The very least, life insurance payouts can cover burial expenses.

Term Life– payout a death benefit if the policyholder dies within the agreed upon term, normally anywhere between 10 to 30 years. Term life policies offer lower premiums, but if the policy holder outlives the policy, it becomes null and all the premiums you paid are lost.

Whole/Universal –is the one, the policy will pay out a death benefit to beneficiaries upon the policy holders death up to age 120, subject to the terms of agreement. Now, these policies tend to have higher premiums & are generally cheaper to get when young, so the reason this is good is the money contributed to many permanent policies builds cash value. Cash value can be used for auto loans, home loans, small loans, personal/ family loans, etc. Paying policy premiums, look into getting a whole life policy while young so you can get a lower rate and be able to take advantage of the cash value later in life.

Now, Home Equity according to…well the internet but to be specific Wikipedia.(I know not 100% reliable but come on I just want the definition so you can get a understanding.) Home Equity – is the market value of a homeowner’s unencumbered interest in their real property, that is, the difference between the home’s fair market value and the outstanding balance of all liens on the property. … In economics, home equity is sometimes called real property value.

Property value- refers to the worth of a piece of real estate based on the price that a buyer and seller agree upon.

Real estate appraisal- real estate transactions often require appraisals because they occur infrequently and every property is unique (especially their condition, a key factor in valuation), unlike corporate stocks, which are traded daily and are identical (thus a centralized Walrasian auction like a stock exchange is unrealistic). The location also plays a key role in valuation. However, since property cannot change location, it is often the upgrades or improvements to the home that can change its value. Appraisal reports form the basis for mortgage loans, settling estates and divorces, taxation, and so on. Sometimes an appraisal report is used to establish a sale price for a property.

So, yeah I actually encourage you to if your black to potentially look into this, if you are interested you can be an appraiser. I saw a video and read a article that was talking about how black people when they resell homes if they have pictures of them or black people in general in the home that will bring the value of the house down tremendously.  So don’t do it for me do it to help the community, but also Real estate appraisal pays on the low end $35,000 to $200k and that was from info from May 2017.

Intellectual Property- a work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or a design( inventions, logo, brand), music, screenplay( film, show). One has rights and which one may apply for a patent, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.

So, which is more likely to come sooner, well that’s not simple one cause one isn’t in your or ultimately our control and the other is completely dependent on you. Starting a business can be like birthing a child, (less painful physically) and it’s D&B number, EIN numbers are just it’s Social Security numbers, you can buy stock, real estate, office space and a car in a business name and own it. Whereas it’s 2019 and the U.S. is just now barely seriously talking about reparations, and slavery was from 1619- 1865 three years after the emancipation proclamation was signed.

So, if you don’t have time nor the attention span (lets be real) to sit and read a book or a simple article or thirty on stock investments, how to turn my home into a home business, budgeting the right way or dividend stocks, you can look it up on YouTube and watch thirty videos or a different video a day on the same subject and with all the different subjects and also podcast, animations, book synopsis or audio books, and plethora of interviews. YouTube may actually be a University. Audible The Magic of thinking Big on your way to work, Four hour work week, Monk who sold his Ferrari, The Intelligent Investor, or As a Man Thinketh   when you stuck in traffic instead of Power or Empire. But can’t amount to actually going out finding a mentor someone who’s been where you want/ strive to be. It’s an extremely old saying that goes  the teach will come when the student is ready and not a moment later, and that’s why I lead off with your mindset. If you don’t know where you want to go and how you  want to get there, then you’ll be where you don’t want to be nor you want things to be, or something to that affect.