Who's next?

THESE are America's black billionaires. All two of them, according to Forbes magazine's annual list of the richest 400 Americans.

This year's list is all billionaires, meaning that for the first time, no one with fewer than 10 digits in the asset column qualified (and they say the rich aren't getting richer).

That only Oprah and Bob -- who needs last names or descriptors to know who they are -- are the only African-Americans in the Billionaire Boys and Girls Club is no surprise. He was the first to join in 2001 after he sold BET; she joined shortly thereafter and that, as they say, was that. For the record: Oprah tied with several other Billies at number 242 with an estimated $1.5 billion fortune, Bob and several others tied for 374th place with $1 billion even, proving, perhaps that it is lonely at the top but not necessarily so for middle of the road moguls.

But seriously, the perpetuity of Oprah and Bob on Forbes list begs a few questions, like when will black billionaires three, four, five or ten join them on the list and where will their money come from? A good percentage of the other Forbes-listers inherited their money, while the others made their fortunes on everything from oil to tech to sports. The lone two African-Americans on the list are self-made media entrepreneurs -- after all, nobody's black daddy until Bob had a billion to leave behind . Will the same hold true for the next to join the list, or will, say, a black investment banker or tech entrepreneur beat the next black media baron to the punch?

And perhaps the better question is when will someone take on the task of ranking the wealthiest African-Americans in the country? (If any of my editors are reading, I'm waiting for your call on this one.) One thing's for sure: we already know who will come in and first and second on that list.

Part 2: 'Brokest' it is

I've finished comparing Black Enterprise's list of the top 10 cities for African-Americans with A.G. Edwards' "Nest Egg Index", which ranks cities where residents are doing better at building wealth against those where they aren't.

Only one city on the Black Enterprise list, Washington, D.C., was also in A.G. Edwards' top ten. It came in at number eight. The only other top black city in the top 100 on the nest egg list was Baltimore, at number 60 -- and those two cities are so close that they're really part of one big metro area. Atlanta, Black Enterprise's number one city for black folks, ranked 123d on the nest egg ranking.

It's hard to say definitively what this all means, but there are a few ways to look at it.

Black folks have smaller incomes, fewer assets, and lower rates of homeownership, on average than whites. So it follows that 'blacker' cities would not fare well in a comparison based on A.G. Edwards' criteria, which factored in a dozen variables -- from income, to home values, to homeownership rates, debt and investment trends .

Many of the cities that scored higher on the A.G. Edwards list did so for reasons that could make them bad places for a young person of any race to try to build a nest egg, and the opposite is true for lower-ranked cities.

Boston, for example, ranked 13th on the list, despite its enormous cost of living and overblown housing market. By A.G. Edwards' standards, higher home values boosted a city's nest egg standing. But Boston would be less attractive to anyone trying to get his or her financial sea legs, while Atlanta, who's lower home values hurt it in the nest-egg rankings, would be much more attractive.

However you slice it, here's what the data showed:

City-- Black Enterprise Rank-- A.G. Edwards "nest egg" rank

Atlanta --1 -- 123


Washington, D.C. -- 2 -- 8

Dallas -- 3 -- 343

Nashville -- 4 -- 303

Houston -- 5 -- 455

Charlotte -- 6 -- 173

Birmingham, Ala. -- 7 -- unranked

Memphis -- 8 -- unranked

Columbus, Ohio -- 9 -- 238

Baltimore -- 10 -- 60



Sources: A.G. Edwards; Blackenterprise.com

Required Reading, September '06

Heart & Soul magazine, where yours truly is a contributing editor, ran part two of a series called Livin' Large on a Tiny Budget in its August/September issue. I wrote part one, which ran earlier this year.

Essence's Work & Wealth section follows up on its homeownership series, gives tips on raising your credit score and profiles Marsha E. Simms, the first black female partner at New York law firm Weil, Gotshal & Magnes LLP, in its September issue.

Black Enterprise lists the top 50 colleges for African-Americans, names its black executive of the year and leads with a cover story on black supermodels-turned-entrepreneurs in its September issue.

Vibe Vixen advice queen Beverly Smith counsels a 26 year-old reader on getting ready to get a mortgage, in its Fall 2006 issue.

Would you rock these?

Would your kid? Would you buy them if you knew they were endorsed by the N.Y. Knicks' Stephon Marbury? Ok? Well how about if they only cost $15? You heard right. A black pro athlete with a shoe deal -- who's only charging 15 bucks for the sneakers.
Shrewd business move, or image killer? Who knows. Black kids since the Jordan era have typically shunned cheap sneaks. Marbury could be about to take a big loss here. Or, he could be onto something, or just out to make the point that there are more important things in life than shoes that cost more cash than you've got in your bank account. It'll be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Top 10: Best or Brokest, Part One

I wrote recently about an annual survey by A.G. Edwards, the money management firm, which ranks the best and worst cities in the country for building a nest egg. A.G. & crew looked at 12 factors, from the rate of homeownership, to income levels, debt levels, home values, the percentage of a city's population that are investors and the percentage that at least owned savings accounts. Looking at the criteria itself, it was tough to tell whether they wanted to show the best areas to start building a nest egg, or where people already had a good head start at doing so.

Of course, this also got me thinking about whether A.G. Edwards' data could tell us anything else, namely, where black folks stand a better chance of gaining some financial ground, or at least the cities where we're already doing OK.

No, said Sophie Beckmann, financial planning specialist for the firm. A.G. Edwards didn't collect demographic data at all. Fair enough. Still, in her own words, the city-by-city rankings are important because they show where in the country people are getting ahead and where it might be tougher to do so -- important factors in an era when employers and the government are doing less and less to ensure smooth sailing into retirement.

So with that in mind, I'm planning a little experiment. In the next day or so, I'm going to compare A.G. Edwards' list to Black Enterprise's most recent list of the Top 10 cities for African-Americans to see whether the best cities for black folks to live are among the best -- or worst -- places in the country for building a nest egg. I hope to have this wrapped up soon so you can see the results.