Put Your Money Where Your Style Is
Listen up, my sisters. When it comes to money, we've got a well-known---and
well-deserved---reputation for being heavy-duty shoppers and spenders. Why not take your hard-earned dollars and build your own wealth by investing in the same beauty manufacturers you make rich?
I bet many of us can afford it.
As the economy has sky-rocketed over the past five years, the incomes of Black women haven't fared too badly either. According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 67 percent of sisters are employed somewhere on a full-time basis, making at least $28,500 a year, compared with $23,500 in 1995.
But we still only earn 87 cents for every dollar earned by our white counterparts and spend 61 percent more than they do on personal care and grooming.
In 1998, sisters dropped approximately $4.5 billion in salons around the country---clearly creating an
attractive bottom line for Revlon, Clairol, Maybelline, ProLine and Dark and
Lovely, based on reports from Target Market News, the nation's leading source for information on African American consumers, marketing and media.
No wonder the first six black millionaires in America, from Madam
Walker and Annie Turnbo Malone to S.B. Fuller and Anthony Overton, made it by
selling hair products to us.
If looking good is going to be such a life-long obsession for black
women, then a smart investor will consider buying shares in some of those
same companies that make the products that we buy. Carson Products, the
largest and most profitable company that produces Black hair care products for African-Americans, is the only such publicly traded corporation that
is owned and operated primarily by African-Americans. (They own Afro Sheen, Gentle Treatment, Ultra Sheen, Ultra Star, Classy Curl,
Flori Roberts, Ultra Sheen Supreme, Soft Touch, Sta-Sof-Fro, Ultra Sheen's
Precise and Bantu.)
Unfortunately, due to
excessive debt incurred by the purchase of Johnson Products and a weak
financial picture, they are in the process of being acquired by L'Oreal, the
world's largest cosmetics company, which is based in Paris.
Bottom line? We spend too much and save too little and no one but us will
suffer the consequences of such misplaced priorities. When we begin paying
as much attention to our investment portfolios as we do to our nail polish and our touch-ups, then we as women will have the cash cushion and comfort to achieve the life
empowering freedom we so desperately long for.
Money in the bank and a good
investment portfolio will allow us to successfully control not only our own
life choices, but those of our children, our families and, ultimately, our
communities.
Start investing with any of the beauty powerhouses provided in the table below:
COMPANY |
WEBSITE
|
TICKER |
PRICE |
DRIP * |
|
Avon |
www.avon.com |
AVP |
$29.94 |
Yes |
|
Carson |
www.carson-cic.com |
CIC |
$5 |
No |
|
Clariol (owned by Bristol- Meyers-Squibb) |
www.bms.com
|
BMY |
$53.25 |
Yes |
|
Estee
Lauder
|
www.elcompanies.com |
EL |
$46.50 |
No |
|
L'Oreal
(Soft Sheen, Maybelline & Lancome)
|
www.loreal.com |
LORLY |
$124.29 |
No |
|
Proctor&Gamble
(Cover Girl, Oil of Olay, Max Factor)
|
www.pg.com |
PG |
$57 |
Yes |
|
Revlon
|
www.revlon.com |
REV |
$9.06 |
No |
|
