Economic recovery from the pandemic for LatinX and Hispanics has been disproportionately slow, with unemployment lagging behind whites and asians. Building wealth among minorities who service industries and small businesses hit the hardest, has been exceptionally difficult.
“It is not surprising that that has been the community that’s been impacted the most,” Delyanne Barros, founder of “Delyanne, The Money Coach” told Yahoo! during an event celebrating LatinX and Hispanic heritage.
“I think it’s because we have taken such a forefront in building wealth through entrepreneurship through small businesses,” she added.
By August of this year, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) had risen 100% since the March 2020 stock market lows. But it’s likely that many LatinX and Hispanics didn’t experience direct benefits of equity gains.
“Because Latinos are not investing in the stock market as much as other communities, they have felt the impact in their wealth more, because their businesses are suffering, whereas the stock market has continued to grow and thrive,” said Barros.
Families led by Black or Hispanic adults are less likely to be invested in the stock market, compared to those led by white adults, according to the latest Pew research. About 61% percent of white U.S. households own some stock, compared to 28% of Hispanic households.
“Because they’re not taking advantage of that wealth-building machine, they are losing out on balancing some of that loss with investing,” added Barros.
Though wages have risen this year, so has inflation. “Figuring out how to diversify your income” is the only way for underrepresented communities to keep up with price increases, says Diana Pinedo, founder of Ms. Informed Latina.
“In a gig economy, you can learn any trade, and you really can learn about anything, and then start to charge to make a little money, whether it’s hot products or services,” said Pinedo.
“There’s Instacart, and there’s Uber (UBER), and there is TaskRabbit. There’s just all these ways to just make a little extra cash,” she said.
“And of course, it’s about investing your money. Whatever other money that you’re making, I would put aside some of it for investment purposes, and of course, other to make up for inflation,” added Pinedo.
Ines Ferre is a reporter covering the stock market.
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