Financial socialization, or who and how individuals were influenced financially, while growing up, has an impact on their current financial literacy and well-being. Little is known about African Americans’ financial socialization, so this study explored their financial socialization through the best and brightest of the community-educated African Americans; and then determine if the way in which they were socialized has an impact on their financial knowledge. The African American community is a heterogeneous community and differences in education levels would probably produce differences in financial outcomes. Primary data and 2015 FINRA survey data were used in this study. This study found that participants’ top three financial influences were parents, followed by life experiences, and then formal influences. Furthermore, those who were financial socialization by self-directed influences were more likely to be more financially knowledgeable than those who were financially socialized by other informal influences.

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This study investigated factors that are likely to limit African Americans' investment activity in the stock market by triangulating data from the 2015 FINRA Financial Capacity Study and a Financial Behavior/Capacity survey that targeted African Americans. The financial survey revealed the top self-reported reasons these African Americans gave for not investing were, "I don't understand how the stock market works," "I don't make enough money," and "I don't want to lose my money." Logistic regression results for the FINRA African American sample indicate that those with more financial knowledge, those who participated in financial education, and those who were financially socialized by parents were more likely to invest. In terms of magnitude, financial education had a larger impact on the FINRA African Americans than on the FINRA Caucasians, and parental financial socialization and financial knowledge had larger impacts on the FINRA Caucasians.

The wealth of African Americans has lagged behind that of the general US population. The key to understanding this may lie in African American women’s money management abilities and feelings relating to money because they are often the household’s money manager. This study answers the question, “If African American women had greater confidence in their ability to manage money, or had a positive attitude towards money, would they invest in the stock market more often and ultimately increase their net worth in this way?” Researchers studied a cross-section of African American women, using three logistic regression models and found that African American women who were sure of their ability to manage their finances and felt in control of their money were more likely to be investors. A higher number of younger African American women were investors, compared to older African American women. In addition, younger African American women had greater confidence in their money management ability than their older counterparts.

As accumulating wealth is a vital component of financial well-being, this paper aims to gain a better understanding of why African Americans do not accumulate wealth at the same rate as other racial groups. Researchers utilize data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to estimate the parameters of logistic regression specifications to examine the factors that determine wealth accumulation for African Americans. Researchers found that African Americans were less likely to have low wealth if they owned their own homes and more likely to have low wealth if they did not save. Saving and homeownership had more of an impact on wealth accumulation for African Americans than for White Americans. Furthermore, African Americans who did not invest in the stock market were more likely to have low wealth, as investing also had more of an effect on wealth accumulation for White Americans than for African Americans.