Black People Are Financially Stupid

A.D. Fin

For four hundred years, the money lessons other families passed down at the kitchen table were kept from ours. This book teaches them now, step by step, from the first debt you pay off to the will you leave behind.

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Book cover: Black People Are Financially Stupid by A.D. Fin. A green dollar sign shaped like a boot presses down on a family holding it up.

Where we start

Days of cash the typical Black household has to fall back on if the paychecks stop.

JPMorgan Chase Institute

11¢

Wealth held by the median Black family for every dollar held by the median White family.

Federal Reserve, 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances

16%

Share of Black Americans who have a will, so what we do build too often ends up in court.

Caring.com, 2025

None of that is because we can't learn. It's because nobody ever taught us. You can only teach what you know.

Follow one family

Meet the Carters

Jason, a warehouse shift supervisor in Memphis, and Tasha, a medical assistant, start the book the way so many of our families do. Chapter by chapter, you watch them learn what nobody taught them.

Chapter 3A year of interest from their savings account$0.21

Chapter 5Total debt, written down in one place for the first time−$52,500

Chapter 5Paid every month in interest alone−$434

Chapter 6Employer match Jason left on the table for seven years−$14,000

Chapter 7First month of profit from Carter's Mobile Detailing$1,030

Chapter 8Days the business could survive if the money stopped, up from 960 days

Chapter 10A will, a trust, and a family binder, so their children never inherit a court caseDone

Ten chapters, in order

What's inside

The History of Black People and MoneyWhy money runs on belief, and what was kept from us.
The History of Working for MoneyWhy your paycheck pays the tax man first.
Is Saving the Answer?What the bank really does with your deposits.
Assets, Not ObjectsIs it putting money in your pocket, or taking it out?
Credit and DebtYour first business decision: getting out.
Building Wealth SlowlyIndex funds, the employer match, and time.
Starting a Small Business While Working a 9-to-5Keep the job. Start small. Prove it.
After the Business Makes MoneyCash flow, paying yourself, and turning profit into assets.
Protecting Your WealthInsurance, scams, heirs' property, and family pressure.
Passing It DownWills, beneficiaries, trusts, and teaching our children.

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The worksheets

Print the seven worksheets from the book, free. Sign up with your email and you'll also get a short note each year when the tax brackets, contribution limits, and other numbers in the book change.

Download the worksheets

1 · Your inventory
2 · Your debt list
3 · Your payoff plan
4 · Find your business idea
5 · Monthly business numbers
6 · Beneficiary checklist
7 · The family binder

About the author

"Things have to change."

A.D. Fin is an Army veteran who has worked for more than thirty years in retail, manufacturing, fast food, restaurants, and healthcare, including more than two decades in management and operations.

Like so many Black Americans, Fin grew up on one piece of money advice: work hard and save for a rainy day. Then, in 2024, Fin lost a job. Two months later, one month before Christmas, Fin's vehicle was repossessed. That was the moment Fin said four words out loud.

Frustration turned into reading, and reading turned into research into how money actually works and why those lessons never reached families like Fin's. This book is what came out of that journey.

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