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Fresh off the heels of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Justice or Else rally and calls for a boycott of Christmas shopping, many African-Americans are looking for ways to invest their money rather than spend it frivolously on material goods.

America’s Wealth Coach Deborah Owens joined Roland Martin on NewsOne Now to offer wealth building and investing tips that may help you with your desire to invest in lieu of Christmas shopping.

Owens explained, “African-Americans have to figure out how to use this buying power that we have and transfer that into wealth.”

“We’ve been focused on the wrong metric in the African-American community, we’re always focused on income, we’re not focused on wealth. And so in order to focus on wealth — the bottom line is our decisions have to increase our net worth,” Owens said.

According to a recent Nielsen report, African-Americans’ buying power is forecasted to reach $1.3 trillion by 2017.

The American Research Group reported that the average family spent $861 on Christmas shopping in 2014. Owens said if you’re going to spend $861 shopping, why not spend that amount on a few shares of stock? She then offered a couple of examples of investing verses holiday shopping.

Investing Vs. Christmas shopping

Apple iPad Pro $799 – 1 Share of Apple Stock $111.15*

LeBron XIII$245 – 1 Share of Nike Stock $126.42*

*Stock price as of 10/12/15

Owens explained that many people think you need to have tens of thousands of dollars to open an investment account, but you don’t.

According to Owens, many times individuals in the African-American community do not invest as a result of “lack of exposure” to investing. She said, “We have no legacy” where parents would give their children thousands of dollars and show them how to invest their money.

America’s Wealth Coach also explained one of the ways that average Americans can get into investing is by giving their children shares of stock as gifts, so the conversation is about investing instead of spending.

For those interested in purchasing stocks, Owens suggested viewers visit directinvesting.com and computershare.com.

Watch Roland Martin and financial guru Deborah Owens discuss wealth building through the purchase of stocks in lieu of purchasing Christmas gifts in the video clip above.

TV One’s NewsOne Now has moved to 7 A.M. ET, be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.

SEE ALSO: 

Justice Or Else: Min. Louis Farrakhan Calls For Economic Boycott Of Black Friday Shopping To “Redistribute The Pain”

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WealthyU: Investing Vs. Christmas Shopping  was originally published on newsone.com