a STORY of MONEY

actress Kim Basinger

THE STORY

Kim Basinger bought a small town for $20 million and declared bankruptcy four years later. The rapper, and one of the best dancers of the 20th century, MC Hammer, earned $33 million at the height in his career and found himself bankrupt before the 1990's were done. He has since rebound, and Kim Basinger, I think has rebound. 

I don't know how to think about bankruptcy properly, as well as money or wealth. I am not alone. Most anyone who graduated from an American school graduated financially illiterate. By the time a person has plunged into marriage, the raising of a family and spent their first earned check they've been thrust into a rapid moving game bent on taking from you everything you earn, could earn, and any dream you have within you! That is how the world of money, credit and ownership presented itself to me as a young man. 

There was no time for the detail and the depth of study of finance. My pastor at the time, Bishop Ralph E. Green, was the first visionary I met on the subject of money. His ministry was a deliverance healing one. Finance was not his primary goal. He recognized a major problem in his church, studied it, and addressed it in the form of a 'wish list'. What I mean is a lot more than a simple-minded sermon about tithing to balance a budget. Bishop invited a small group of young men to his office one day to discuss business. In that meeting he discussed a multi-level marketing company, Shakley, and its income producing possibilities. He and his wife were making money from the product, and using it! The health benefits were noticeable, and the financial rewards and knowledge he wanted to pass on to us for our families financial security. He wanted to build a common sense legacy within each and everyone of his members. 

Bishop had a large church at the time. This meeting led to an announcement. He wanted 100 business owners and 100 ministers to arise from the ranks of his congregation, and that happened. He continued along the party lines of the movement of economic development espoused by Malcom X, Booker T. Washington, and later Jim Brown and other Black athletes in the late 1960's and back to the others who promoted economic independence within the Black American community. 

It was the drive of the vision from the man that first empowered me that eventually led me to a mentor. That is not to say I've become a wealthy man with a lot of money and property. No. It ain't so. My understanding has increased, but what I discovered was my relationship with money! 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.27.13

$20 gold coin worth $7.6 million in lobby of Federal Reserve Bank of New York in lower Manhattan