Ray Talks Debt & Breaking the Cycle

What up y'all welcome back to the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth This is the great vine with Ray nitty live from the American family insurance studios We having a real good conversation right now y'all we having a real good conversation about debt in our community Not death but debt Let's get back to this

Let's get back to what's keeping us there.

So we talking about.

Where it differently lies, right?

We said 56 percent of black adults report owing money for a medical or dental bill compared to 37 percent of whites.

I mean, say whites like that strong.

It's just capital W.

Blacks and Hispanics households carry a higher share of unsecured debt.

The kind that doesn't build any asset or wealth versus secure debt like mortgages, which does.

Fifty eight percent.

Fifty eight percent of black Americans say they have more debt than savings.

Compared to just 30 percent of white Americans.

Black debt stressed card holders saw their average balance grow 31 percent.

So basically twenty three hundred.

It grew twenty three hundred between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty five.

A faster increase than most other groups, even though their starting balances were often lower.

Think about that.

Our balance is started lower.

Probably because we'd be approved for less.

But because of interest, it grows to even more.

That isn't usually a character problem, y'all.

It's overwhelmingly a response to real financial shocks from things like medical bills, inflation, income that don't stretch.

That just ain't enough.

Hidden people who often don't have savings to observe them.

And then that shame spiral that people go in because of debt.

It's often the thing keeping people stuck longer than the debt itself.

Because we be like man to hell with them bills To hell with them bills not dealing with it.

I'm not dealing with it To hell with you Sally Mae You scammed me I Just think it's wrong to give a kid $40,000 out of high school in college loans

student loans.

After society has prioritized, like made it a priority that education after high school was so important.

You needed all of this education, all these degrees, all of this, all of that.

Only now, follow me.

Only now,

for this generation to have an even harder time finding a place to work after they get out of college.

People are graduating with all this debt and no place to go work.

I remember when I.

dropped out of college, flunked out, however you want to say, sharing my truth.

I decided music was more important.

So I was at the studio and I ain't like how the teachers was treating me when I asked questions.

You can't be a place of education and when somebody asks a question because it doesn't align with the programming that you are trying to implement.

That your response to me is, Mr. Boyd, if you're just going to keep being.

a distraction, you should just leave.

So I left, never came back.

Y'all distracted me from these raps, man.

I'd have had Bow in 2004 if I wasn't wasting time.

Trying to understand why they think that that's another conversation.

Stay focused.

The shame spiral is often the thing keeping people stuck longer than the debt itself, y'all.

That ain't nothing to be ashamed about.

Some of the most successful people got debt.

But when we ignore it, that's when it becomes a problem.

When we ignore it, it becomes a problem.

And then we wanted to do a segment about how to actually get out of that, but I'm not a financial advisor.

And I can't give you advice on something I'm still actively figuring out myself.

I can't tell you how to get out of something I'm still in.

I can't do it.

I wouldn't be the person that you should listen to.

But what I can tell you is about a bunch of choices I made and decisions I made that was probably irresponsible as a young artist touring enjoying life having spirits That probably helped keep me stuck in that debt and

Continuing the shame spiral to hell with you, Sally May.

You're not getting it.

I'm going on the road.

And when I come back, I'm going to the club.

It was times we got off of the road from coming back from Mississippi for a show and went straight to Onyx.

We just made it to Onyx.

1 30 AM.

Y'all know the last call was at 125.

But what'd I do?

Me two bottles anyway.

It's time.

I'm here.

And then I don't even drink it.

It'd be for everybody else.

We put so much money into things that we don't need, that we don't value that.

Like why do we do it?

Miss Charlotte said something about us wearing designer.

Hey, man, if you could afford whatever you want, go ahead afford it.

A lot of these designer folks don't even want us in their garments.

Let's keep that in mind, too.

I remember Tommy Hill figure himself said.

I don't make clothes for the black bodies.

He said it.

I ain't just making that up.

But no, we run.

We run the Gucci, we run the Louis, we run the Fendi.

Prioritize these labels.

I feel a way when you have

When you try to bring things to our community, right?

You're like, all right, we're gonna bring vendors.

And then the pushback was, well, I hope the vendors aren't charging for their products because, you know, we give things away here.

It's like, you know, people really can't afford to be buying these things.

And I always push back.

I'm like, no, I'm calling BS on that.

One we programming our community to always want something for free.

And we programming them to not put real value on black business.

So if we're trying to do a black market.

Why would you tell the vendors like and we say in this community don't have the resources to buy it and they can't afford it and the whole community got on Jordan's true religions designer iPhones.

So we gotta stop that narrative.

We put the money in things we don't need.

We don't need it.

I wish MPS would go to mandatory uniforms.

I wish.

Young people ain't gonna like me for this.

But.

Imagine the money a family is saving if all they have to buy is a few shirts and some pants to get them through the school year.

And not prioritize, oh, you gotta have this Balenciaga shirt, this Louis Vuitton shirt, this Gucci shirt.

Get you five shirts from JL Markets and go sit down and learn some.

We prioritize the wrong things as a community, y'all.

I wish, I wish when I saw NPS had considered uniforms, I was like, bet amazing.

They should.

But our society has made school a damn fashion show.

purses, parties.

We ate up in the eighth grade.

You still got recess, my boy.

But we push these labels on our kids as well.

And now they got a want for it.

They got a desire for it.

I think so many families would save so much money in the city of Milwaukee if we prioritize uniforms for MPS.

You might not like it.

And maybe, maybe them uniform funds can help fund MPS instead of putting it on the damn referendum in my taxes.

It's just a thought.

It's just a thought.

But don't go anywhere, y'all.

When we come back on the other side of this break, we'll be talking with Dan from the north side on the award-winning one-on-one seven to truth.

What up y'all

welcome back To the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth it's a boy Ray Nitty holding it down on the grapevine Hope y'all feeling real fine This album was so cold If that's the album I think it was this is a equemini album No, this wasn't a criminal.

I don't know might be wrong

Welcome back y'all We got Dan on the line from the north side there.

How you doing you live on the grave line?

I Can't complain at all brother.

I can't complain at all

Just kind of comment on a couple things you said relative to that managing that and our material wealth and understanding, you know not getting caught up in the materialism

I think first and foremost, as a person who's going to go into adulthood, we ought to have some sense of learning from people's past, to state your family members, your own mistakes, and passing it down to the right choices for people to make.

Because you might be a 10-year-old today, and it's not important for you at this point to know about.

But at some point, you become a 20-year-old.

And all of a sudden, now you've got to figure out how to, hey,

navigate in an adult world and be whatever money you're gonna have how do you be smart with it so that you can you know not always have to be on the ground but at some point have the money work for you I think not having like financial literacy is kind of like mandatory and school is a problem because you do learn most things you learn you learn when you're in you know grade school elementary school

high school.

And if you never get taught that in school, you get taught math, but you don't know much about how to apply math

in the real

world.

That's a problem.

Secondly, people eventually gonna start to develop a family.

Well, what's the cost of having a family?

What does that mean in terms of money?

Because now that dollar has to stretch more than just you.

And then how do you prioritize your children's needs over your needs?

And

Until that education starts to happen, we're going to always be in a rut because people who don't have to worry about this so much, not that they have so much money, it's that they understand how things work.

You can't go into life debt-free.

You're going to owe somebody something at some point in time.

But how do you get a good deal?

How do you pay that deal off?

Do you understand the love you take to pay it?

you didn't pay two and three times more for the product than if you were to just save for it.

And saving money, whether you save money under a mattress or you put it into something that's going to get you some interest, those are the discussions that we don't have as a community as a whole.

And it's really

holding us back.

Nope, I agree with you.

A thousand percent.

Brother Dan, thank you for calling in.

We appreciate that wisdom.

A-3-3-2-1-2-10-17 is the number to dial.

A-3-3-2-1-2-10-17 is the number to dial.

Man, I love what he said, man.

It's a lot of things that's holding us back, man.

Not having that.

I remember this is what I did appreciate from John Burroughs, and we weren't doing this in the Virgin Islands.

When I got to John Burroughs, they had like a stock trading course.

Like, and we had to do it on actual paper.

So I wish that we would have had more of that and that transferred over into high school.

I think eighth grade, ninth grade, those are the best times that we should be hammering these type of lessons.

home to our young people, man, because right now we are in an era of just wastefulness.

Wastefulness and and everybody trying to stunt.

Everybody trying to shine.

So much so, you got folks buying the fake chains and they next turning green.

Just because they want to look like some.

But take your time, man.

Let's take our time as a community.

Let's really look at what we invest in investments, investments.

Right now, I'm prioritizing not spending unnecessary money.

It's hard when I just spent $38 on cookies this this week.

It's hard.

But when you prioritize not spending.

wastefully and you invest it.

In in good areas, I'm not a financial advisor, so I'm not going to get up here and tell anybody where they should invest at.

But do some research.

Look into a financial advisor that could you could ask about the stock market.

Right now, I'm prioritizing putting my extra finances into the market.

because I can't rely on social security to be around in five years.

I can't rely on Medicaid to be around in five years.

I can't pass my kids down my Jordan collection or my true religion collection.

We ain't even the same size.

Like.

We hand down way more closets than assets.

What are we leaving behind?

What we leaving behind for our families?

What are we putting in place right now?

Are we spending our money on things that appreciate or depreciate in value?

You don't need to buy that Mercedes Benz off the used car lot with 250,000 miles on it and it's a 2001 And they gonna charge you 30 bands for it because it's a Benz I Can't remember who called but they called earlier said

You know, they used to walk to the grocery store.

And then they complained about it to their parents and they was like, you walk into a home that you own.

You walk into a house that you own, something that could be passed down to you.

Do you know how meant you got to keep a car to pass that down to a child?

And if you passing that down, this damn show a collectible.

At this point.

We got to do smart investments.

I could tell you what I'm personally doing, but I'm not advising you all to do it because I'm not a financial advisor.

I paid for a course.

Somebody who's a professional that's gonna guide me and be like, all right Put this money here.

Look at these stocks.

Look at these companies.

Look at this ETF.

Look at this fund And I wish I wish I was doing this in 2009 2006 when we was promoting nightclubs

And I was touring at the same time.

You got a nightclub bringing you $5,000 on a Friday night, then another $4,000 on a Saturday.

And we was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and we had a Wednesday night.

And what was I buying?

Going to Silverstar the next day for the next event.

Buying bottles.

Going to my fishers after the club.

But in 2026, if I had invested 15 grand that we probably made in a month at Rain Night Club.

If I put that into Apple stock back then, when Apple was before the stock splits and all of that.

I'll do you one better.

I'll tell you what it was.

And if you invested.

$27,000 into Apple in 2001.

By 2010, they said you would have had about, what does it say, $4 million or something?

I gotta Google it.

I gotta Google it and make sure I'm telling you all the right thing.

Because it makes me cringe how much M's I left on the table.

It makes me cringe.

If I was investing that money, music would be such a secondary.

Like, you won't be waiting on, look at this, jazz is insane.

People just come up on the window.

You won't be waiting on things like loans.

You won't have that but We hear the things and we don't it's it's not It's not the cool thing to do.

The cool thing to do is be turned in the club Because you the rapper you Ray nitty And you got to buy all the bottles, but I told y'all they got real dark for me, man

Once I decided to stop spending money on bottles and being in the club because then now your real friends You start realizing who those real friends are Said folks be door dashing cheesecake factory, but got blankets blocking out the sun in the living room

We'll be right back after these messages, y'all.

Don't go anywhere.

What up, y'all?

Welcome back to the award-winning 1017, The Truth, live from the American Family Insurance Studios.

This is The Great Vine with your boy Ray Nitty.

We talking about that money, man.

A $10,000 investment in Apple stock in 2001 would be worth between $8 million and $9.4 million today, depending on exact date you purchase the shares.

I want y'all to think about this as many iPhones our community consume.

If you got an iPhone, you should at least have one Apple stock.

You should have one share.

You should at least have one share.

Think of all these things.

Meta Facebook.

Let's see.

10,000 in Apple in 2001.

would be nine million dollars today.

Nine million.

I'm trying to think if somebody worked a regular job and had decent pay, would they have made nine million dollars by the end?

I gotta do that math, too.

Nine million.

That's just letting it sit there, not doing anything to it.

You don't got to go talk to nobody about it.

You just leave it there.

Watch it grow.

Let me see what 10,000.

In meta.

At the beginning from its IPO.

You see 10,000 in meta.

When IPO'd You see what that would be today Let's see 10,000 in meta when it IPO'd would be what today So if you invested 10,000 in Facebook now meta

at its IPO price.

So think about this, when Meta Facebook IPO, this was 2012.

This is after, this is 12 years, 11 years after Facebook.

I feel like these numbers are a little wrong, but it's saying 10,000 in Facebook in 2012.

Would be worth roughly about a hundred and sixty to a hundred and sixty two thousand dollars today That's not bad That's not bad And you got dividends added dividends is what they give you extra depending on how much like my meta shares I get

No Microsoft shares my Microsoft shares I get 91 cents per share Individend and then I just reinvested Now I ain't gonna sit here and act like I just got a whole bunch of Microsoft shares now you I'm talking about five years But I got others

that I invested in.

I give you one better.

Why it's important to invest in a company and hold it for the long term.

I had roughly about, man, this is when Apple stocks split.

So I got Apple shares at around $99 a share when it split.

Google split around that same time as well.

So did Nvidia.

I bought it at 99.

Thinking like, ah, it's too high.

I'm going to wait for it to drop lower.

Two years past, I sold all 25 shares of my Apple shares.

It went up to like 106 bucks.

But then I got out of the market.

I used that money to buy a house that we flipped.

And what I do, partied.

celebrated after we sold a house, went kicking it, instead of putting it right back into the market.

Now I don't got that liquid money.

I don't got that liquid cash to put back in the market.

And I just go about my day and wasn't focusing on investing.

Years later, I look up Apple $300, 340 something a day.

No, Apple 317 today.

No, what is Apple today?

Yeah, Apple is at 311 right now.

Each share would have profited $200 just by leaving it alone.

But because I was as five G's.

That I just left on the table.

I'm just saying, y'all, we got to start prioritizing what we doing with our finances, what we leaving behind for our kids, right?

So I ain't going to get into how to actually get out of debt because I'm still in it.

I'm still in it.

But the importance of investing.

Only 53 to 58 of all black Americans on stocks at all.

It's actually higher than I was anticipating to hear.

Actually, compared to 61 to 70 percent of white Americans.

And by dollar value, the gap is even starker.

White Americans have 30% of their financial wealth in stocks, mutual funds versus just 8% for black Americans.

Because we be pulling it out.

We got a trip.

We got to go on.

Black 401k participants who do.

Invest, put in 26% less per month than white participants on average.

231 versus 239.

Even at the same income level.

Laurenti says, I would have invested in Berkshire Hathaway, class A or B.

I wish I'd have known what that was back there.

I wish.

I keep saying Laurenti.

I keeps.

I just said this yesterday.

It's Laurent Taylor.

It also says most people aren't privy to IPO information or announcements.

A medical stock shot up.

Yeah, Moderna.

We've been seeing the Moderna commercial.

Some of the option calls went up hundreds of thousands of percentages.

A medical stock shot up yesterday because a skin cancer trial went well.

A melanoma cure.

I got a couple of medical stocks.

I'm hoping they get the trial.

I'm hoping that's what I'm hoping for a Moderna mom.

I called the wrong option.

My gosh, I almost got to pull up this Moderna chart just to give you all an example of why it's important to invest, but also important to get educated on what you're invested in.

That's why it's important to invest it in quality companies, quality stocks.

Moderna, I know y'all seen the Moderna count the Moderna commercials I'm gonna tell y'all I'm as a matter of fact, I'll tell y'all real quick before we go to break I'm pulling up this chart, right?

Just so we can see So

Now obviously the stock market goes up and down It goes up and down Yesterday Moderna shot up over a hundred Almost over a hundred dollars if I'm not mistaken at one point Almost a hundred dollars the 52 week low

I'll share that with y'all.

That means throughout this year, 52 weeks, Moderna stock was at $22.

So at some point this year, you could have got Moderna as low as $22 and 28 cents.

Yesterday, a new 52 week high hit where it reached $126.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

We'll be back right after these messages.

What up, y'all?

What up?

What up?

What up?

What up?

Welcome back.

Welcome back to the award-winning 1017, the true fly from the American Family Assurance Studios.

It's your boy Ray Nitty holding it down on the grapevine.

DJ BrotherZ holding me down with the production and sound.

How y'all feeling, man?

We talking about that money, man.

We talking about that money, man.

LaRon Taylor says six years ago he made over $150 being in a national dominoes commercial.

He says I spent maybe 30% of that paying off debt and blew the rest.

What an idiot he says.

I say, man, you at least had the thought process to be like, let me pay off some debt.

Somehow there's somebody in this world, LaRon.

That may have gotten a hundred and fifty thousand dollars with debt They got that and did not pay off the debt just went further into that.

I know it is I know it is But we was just talking about Moderna how that shot up shot up over It just shot up from twenty two dollars was the low at some point this year to now it has a high of hundred and seventy six

So each share, if you got in at a nice price, let's say you got in at that $22 mark, that $20 mark, each share you had, you profit $150.

But here's the thing about stocks, that's why you gotta be careful, and I am not a financial advisor, so do not make any financial decisions based off of anything I'm saying up here today.

Stocks go up and they go down.

So as fast as Moderna shot up to 176 yesterday Somebody who hasn't got the right mental fortitude or the right training to be like Let me just Let me wait See what's happening.

They might be like they might have that FOMO fair missing out so they're gonna jump in They might jump in at 150

160 You know It's like oh man it got up to 176 I got to get some of that So now they done bought a hundred shares at 150 160 thinking they bought the run back up But today Moderna is back down it's still up from where it was at yesterday But if you bought in at the high spot

It's down to 133 today.

So you would have lost money.

And that's why I just prioritize purchasing high quality companies.

Microsoft, Google, Apple.

And a few ETFs.

But.

Learning when to get in these companies is what's important.

Because you don't always want to buy at the high point.

You're going to lose money every time.

All right.

So let's keep this going y'all.

We talking about the real gap.

We talked about the 401ks.

We talk about how many of us actually invest in stocks.

It says only 53 to 58% of black Americans own stocks at all compared to 61 to 70% of all whites.

I thought that number was pretty high for us.

So we making some progress y'all.

So here's the upside participation among black investors.

Investors under 40 has been closing the gap fast.

68% of young black adults now invest compared to 57% of young white adults in the same recent survey.

So we get in there.

We get in there.

We still got a generation of us that don't trust things like banks and the stock markets.

Still got a few of our boomers that's bury in a cash or hide in a money under a mattress or shoebox.

And black first time investors are three times more likely than white first time investors to have started during a recent market entry point.

Bar says because.

They invest dumped the system Wait for people to hop on the bandwagon and those big investors going to drop out the stock and take your money.

Yep Yep Yep, they prop up the market and they crash it they put a whole bunch of money into certain companies certain stocks or they pull it out

and we get left holding the bag.

That's why it's important to understand what you invest in it.

So why this all connects, y'all?

I only got a couple more minutes here with y'all before we got Jazzy stepping into the booth.

A credit Suzy study found that even among the wealthiest 5% of black households, they're still more likely to hold safe assets, real estate, bonds, life insurance, and stocks.

Meaning even black families who've built wealth are building it more slowly than white families with similar income because of what they're invested in.

Told y'all, we just don't trust certain things.

Life insurance protects your family if you're gone tomorrow.

Investing grows what your family has 20 years from now.

Most people only have one of the two.

Which one you missing?

833-212-1017.

833-212-1017.

Which one are you missing?

Do you have both?

Life insurance and investing in stocks?

I just wanna know.

We gonna bring this home.

Bringing it home, wrapping it up, I promise you.

And this is fact check confirmed via Wisconsin policy for UW Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty and the Wealth in Milwaukee 2025 report.

Milwaukee's black home ownership rate sits at roughly 27.5%.

That's less than half the white home ownership home ownership rate at 72% Wisconsin as a whole has one of the widest black-white home ownership gaps of any state in the country and that's why I ask of Politicians, what are you gonna do?

for black Wisconsinites?

I'm gonna keep it going only got a couple more minutes

Nationally, the average white household has a net worth of $171,000, about 10 times higher than the average black household, 17,150.

Mark Levine, a UWM economist, has found black Milwaukeeans are actually worse off financially today.

relative to white residents that they were 40 to 50 years ago.

So we worse off today.

A black household in Milwaukee earning over 100,000 a year is twice as likely to live in a concentrated poverty neighborhood as a white household earning under $10,000 a year.

Meaning income alone doesn't buy the same neighborhood access.

Black-owned employer businesses in Wisconsin generate an average of just 42 cents for every dollar generated by white-owned businesses.

A direct reflection of unequal access to commercial lending and capital.

We talked about this.

Somebody said it in the chat.

This ain't just history.

It's still actively happening.

Black households continue to face higher mortgage loans.

Denial rates and higher interest rates than White households with comparable income and credit.

And this is according to the UW Madison housing researchers.

So the $40 trillion national number, y'all, the credit card debt number, the life insurance investing gap.

None of it exists in a vacuum.

Redlining, lending, discrimination, lower ownership access in Milwaukee, specifically compound every single one of the national trends this show covered today.

I felt like we was teaching today.

I felt like we taught something today.

So local groups like ACK Housing, Take Root, Milwaukee, specifically help Black and Latino families

Navigate the home buying and credit building process.

So just in case anybody is looking for somebody to talk to, holler at them.

All right.

And I'm going to share this black pioneer again.

We shared this of the day.

Today's black financial pioneer is Maggie Lena Walker.

1864 to 1934.

In 1903, Maggie Linen founded St.

Luke Penny Savins Bank in Richmond, Virginia, becoming the first black woman to charter and serve as president of a bank in the United States.

Born to a formerly enslaved mother Walker built the bank specifically so black families could access mortgages and financial services white owned banks refused them by 1924 it had helped more than 700 black families by their own homes All right, I Would read some more man, but I gotta make some way for Shannon let us have a bank that will take

I mean, not Shannon.

Jazzy.

Let us have a bank that will take the Nichols and turn them into dollars.

Quote by Maggie Lena Walker.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

The tap in is next.

We'll miss Jazzy.

Jazz Tyler.

you

What up y'all?

What up?

What up?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

It's your boy Ray Nitty holding it down on the grapevine.

On the award-winning 10170 Truth Live from the American Family Insurance Studios.

I've been tired all day.

I'm just making it every time.

How y'all feeling, man?

We about to have a pretty interesting show today.

What I thought I was gonna talk about I'm not gonna talk about But we do have a conversation to continue 8 3 3 2 1 2 10 17 That's the number to dial 8 3 3 2 1 2 10 17 that is the number to die You could text that number as well y'all Follow me on Facebook Instagram Twitter

Tick tock, I'm back onto it now.

R-A-Y-N-I-T-T-I.

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If you can't join us in your car, hit us up on YouTube.

Or if you got to get out your car to walk in to work, you might have just clocked out on your lunch break.

Hop on YouTube.

Check us out.

Today we want to talk about something that's very important y'all It's gonna be a little carryover, but with a little different uh With a little different lens on the on the lunch break we were talking about the US debt Hitting 40 trillion dollars yesterday we talked about how did we get there?

You know who was responsible who do we owe?

40 trillion we owe somebody and when do they want it by?

These are the questions that we don't be getting the answers to like When do you want this 40 tees bar man?

That's a huge number But it was a couple things we didn't necessarily get to touch on

in the show, because we be having a good time on the lunch break.

Shannon will actually be in town later today.

So we gonna have a good time while she in town.

She'll be in studio tomorrow.

So make sure y'all bring somebody to lunch with you tomorrow, man.

12 to two.

It's gonna be an amazing time.

But what I wanted to talk about today,

That we didn't get to talk about is what drives us into and keeps us in debt As humans not as a country as humans Then I want to talk to I got as a community What keeps us there as well We talked about some of that on the lunch break as well wealth

Not being distributed in our communities, whether that's passing it on from life insurance policies and things of that nature.

Or having the right insurance policy.

Or owning the businesses that we shop at in our community.

Because the Sandra called in and said.

Something that a lot of us already know, but.

I'ma say it again, because there's a few of us that don't know it.

The black dollar only stays in our community for one day.

One day before it's gone.

One day before it's gone.

I got my reasons as to why.

Well, one is I don't think none of the stores, the majority of the stores, ain't owned by us.

So who we shopping with don't look like us right away, soon as we walk out our door.

And then, two, we don't prioritize searching for the businesses that could provide the services or the goods that we need.

I'm guilty of it, too.

This ain't no finger pointing situation.

I'm guilty of it, too.

We just talked about the black BP gas station on Akison.

Shannon even said, Ray, you posted it.

I see you posted.

But.

I feel like these last couple of times I have not prioritized.

Making sure, OK, I'm going to Accasin to get my gas.

I was at the beginning, but now, you know, like we make all the excuses.

For why are we not doing something?

It sure is a preference, you know, people got their own preference, but I was making it my point to make sure I went to Akison to get that gas.

Then my route changed and, you know, start taking different ways to get to work and whatnot and get to the station.

So now you make excuses like, I get it on Sunday when I'm going to.

Clinton Rose Park.

But typically after a week of driving for work, you fill it up on Friday or Saturday.

So Sunday, your tank full.

And now I have now just perpetuated this cycle.

Instead of prioritizing going out and seeking.

Black businesses that we could spend our money with, I'm part of it, too.

So I'm working on being more intentional.

about where I spend my dollars.

We got cousin Rob on the line.

Rob, how you feeling, man?

You live on the grapevine.

All

right.

All right, all right, all right.

All praise be to the most high man.

I love your conversation, man.

And the thing is, we as a people, most of us, don't realize is that we're following their pyramid scheme, because as you know, it started out with the white man, and then the

Asians came up, the Chinese came over and occupied all the stores.

And then after them, the Arabs came over and now it's the Indians.

So they've all had a term getting in our pockets, man, and they will not let us get loans to sustain our own communities.

And that's all by design.

So as you said, we have to prioritize where we spend our money because we have buying power.

And if we prioritize going to black business, we will be in the right trajectory to get out of this situation.

But we can't just say, oh, our being them is right down the street.

I'm just going to go to them.

No, go to Uncle James.

You know, help a brother out, man.

But we can't get past it if we do not learn how to prioritize and promise and guarantee to spend our money with us.

That's all I want to say, brother.

I let your conversation keep it up, and

I'm listening every day, brother.

Man, I appreciate you, cousin Rob.

I appreciate you, man.

Yeah, cousin Rob said it right.

You said it right.

We going to go to the liquor store that's owned by the Indians.

Or the corner store.

Sherman Park grocery store.

That's black on.

That's black on right on.

What's that Sherman and and and find a lot.

Right over there, black on.

But you know, we don't prioritize.

I am included when I say we.

I'm included in that conversation.

We.

If we prioritize convenience, we prioritize our convenience over putting our community in a better position.

We mean in everybody, I'm a part of it too.

I'm guilty of it too.

I'm telling you about Sherman Park grocery store and I can't tell you the last time I've been there and actually did my grocery shopping there.

It's at least been a year.

But these are things I'm talking about.

I have to be better.

We as a community have to be better.

And until we start taking our buying power serious, ain't no other community going to take it serious.

Because you know what they be like, where else they gonna go?

Who else they gonna go shop with?

Eventually they gonna got to come, holler at me.

Debt, we in debt.

We can't get out of debt, we don't got banks.

That's gonna loan to people that look like us.

Because Rob just said that.

We know it's harder for us to get licenses and so forth.

It shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be.

So a lot of us go into certain other businesses like nightclubs and so forth.

Try to get involved that way.

Don't go anywhere y'all when we come back.

We'll keep this conversation going on the award-winning one on one seven the truth This is boy Ray nitty holding it down on the grapevine What up y'all welcome back to the grapevine it's a boy Ray nitty hope y'all having a great time

On the award-winning 10170 Truth live from the American Family Assurance Studios.

How y'all feeling?

We talking about US debt.

We talking about our debt.

We talking about community debt.

And how we can get out of it, man?

How we get out of it?

We represent $1.6 trillion in buying power that we not taking advantage of.

We not taking advantage of it as a community, as a whole.

We not passing down.

Like important conversations and lessons to our young people.

We teaching them how to be wasteful spenders.

We teaching them how to be wasteful spenders, man.

Indulging in excess.

Like overconsumption.

Not just the data.

I'm talking my over consuming of everything We not being wise with our financial power We ain't even being wise with our power of voting so imagine if we at least was like I

We ain't gonna organize our vote, but we gonna at least organize our dollars I'm telling y'all if we did those two things If we just do them two things my boy, I got nice our vote And our money My bad a little switch up sometimes the Caribbean in me just

You know, show up and say stuff.

But if we do those two things, work on those two things, prioritize it.

How we organize our money and how we organize our vote.

Then we'll be able to really, really show our power.

We'll really be able to show our power as a community.

Human debt was drive us into debt and what keeps us there?

I Like to tell y'all where we are fact check from in our sources, right?

So this is confirmed via the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Bank rates 2026 credit card debt report and the penny hoarders 2026 state of debt survey

A3 3 2 1 2 10 17 that's the number to dial a 3 3 2 1 2 10 17 as the number to dial So let's get into the scale of it, right?

Total US credit card debt sits at roughly 1.25 to 1.26 trillion as of mid 2026 The average American

with credit card debt owes around seventy seven hundred and fifty six dollars to nine no nine hundred seven thousand seven hundred and fifty six dollars to nine thousand and nine hundred dollars in credit card debt and total household debt which includes stuff like mortgages auto loans and student loans

Student loans is a scam.

It's far higher.

Roughly two thirds of Americans say they're currently in debt.

One in three households carries at least 10,000 in non-mortgage debt.

Absolutely.

Let's think about that credit card.

We don't know we don't be paying them credit card bills.

What actually drives people into it?

And this is in people's own words.

This is from a survey.

Remember, I cited my sources at the beginning of this segment.

The number one cited reason is rising cost of living slash inflation.

At 21%.

Which was followed by income simply not covering expenses at 17%.

Nearly 30% say rising house housing costs have forced them to cut back elsewhere.

Twenty four percent have had to charge groceries to a credit card in the past year.

Let's think of that.

When we got.

Americans putting.

Groceries.

Groceries on a credit card.

Not cuz You know, they just trying to get points They doing it because they have to I'm sure that's why they Answered this way in the survey this peanut butter cookies so far 24% have had to charge their groceries to a credit card in the past year

Among people specifically carrying credit card debt, 41% site and emergency or unexpected expenses, things like medical bills, car repairs, home repairs, family loans.

As the primary driver, what's interesting is...

Nobody said anything about overspending on once That's interesting Nobody said it wasn't on there not overspending on once not things we need Just things that we want I wanted this peanut butter cookie.

I didn't need it This is my tenth one this week

I want y'all to think of that.

Each cookie is about $3.25.

In a week, I'm at a half a tank of gas and cookies.

And I'm sorry, I didn't leave a tip.

I can't leave a tip on the cookie, man.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

And I'm a 20%er.

We tip 20% all the time.

But on the cookie I'm straight man.

Don't even take me to that screen fam.

And then they just, I don't like how they just put it on there and then automatically select what they would like you to do and then show it to you and walk away like you don't see it.

Like nah, no tip man.

Now for just walking up to the counter and getting the cookie.

We gotta, come on now.

I don't even think that person is getting paid like a waitress or waiter would get paid.

He's getting regular, regular pay.

But anyway, people label these things as the primary driver, not overspending on ones.

That was interesting to me.

Babar said, you supposed to be on your diet.

I'm telling you bad choices.

Distractions but bar I'ma start tomorrow Again This was a rough week man.

It was a week man Why people what keeps people stuck?

47% of credit card holders carry a balance

month to month and 61% have been in debt for at least a year.

Up from 53% just two years earlier.

One in five don't believe they'll ever pay it off.

One in five people like to hell with them.

One in five is like to hell with them bills.

I'm not paying it.

I'm one of them five.

Student loans?

Sally and Mae gonna have to find me.

I'm sorry.

Y'all scammed me.

You scammed me.

You scammed me, Sally.

Fanny.

And why they all last name Mae?

Sally Mae, Fanny Mae.

Freddie May.

Billy May.

Right.

Sally's still in business.

Then one of them went out.

Was it Franny?

Franny May went out of business or Freddie?

Is it Freddie May?

I'm saying Franny.

Student loans is a scam, man.

You charging.

Think about this.

I want y'all to think about this right here.

Go to a bank at 18, 17 years old.

Try to get a damn loan.

Try to apply for a credit card.

They won't, they won't even try to give you $50.

Oh, but student loans?

Oh, let's give them 40 racks a semester.

I was, I was appalled my freshman year at Concordia.

It's like 40 Gs a semester fam.

A semester.

I didn't even want to be there.

Then I had to go I gotta go to break we'll be back after these messages What up y'all welcome back this is the grapevine with your boy Ray nitty On the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth live from the American family and share studios Milwaukee Mark yo calendars

Join us for Truth Family Fest on Saturday, yes, this Saturday, August 22nd, from 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

at Riverside University High School.

It's free fun for the entire family, featuring great music, community resources, family activities, and back-to-school support to help students get ready for a successful school year.

Interested in volunteering?

Visit the Truth Family Fest website at truthfamilyfest.com.

To complete the volunteer form or by emailing,

c-i-e-r-r-a dot brown at Milwaukee black media dot com.

Bring the whole family and experience one of Milwaukee's favorite community celebrations.

Truth Family Fest Saturday, August 22nd from 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

Special thanks to Educators Credit Union, American Family Assurance, Milwaukee Public Schools, Artist Working in Education, City of Milwaukee, Department of Community Wellness and Safety, AB Corcor, Ascension, and Tapien MKE, y'all.

Make sure y'all tap in with us, man.

This Saturday.

This Saturday.

This Saturday, for sure.

Make sure y'all pull up to Riverside 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

Shout out to our Chapman Bobar in here, Loran in here.

We got Timothy Cole says good afternoon, Truth Nation.

Loran said my people make tips on every order.

They either take your order or you can read it in on the kiosk.

They make your food, box your food, and give you your food.

My shop is in Mekwan.

It's not even a question.

No, for sure.

Man, you got a restaurant.

For sure.

A service, for sure.

I agree, 100%.

100%.

I'm just talking about just running up to this window, getting a quick peanut butter cookie on my three-minute commercial break before I have to be back on here.

Timothy says, I just had a situation at Gals on Taitonia, and I would like to make the people aware of it.

Call us up, Timothy.

Call us up, 833-212-1017.

Share your truth, man.

Call us up.

Let us know what's going on.

We just ask that you keep it family-friendly when you speak.

That's all.

Because I know sometimes we get passionate, and we, you know, we get excited when we, I know I do, and I'm working on it.

But call us up man a 3 3 2 1 2 10 17 share your truth.

Please do let us know what happened We was just talking about being intentional about our dollars Sherman Park grocery store black on right on Sherman or North Avenue Jazz what's up jazz?

We got miss Charlotte on the line miss Charlotte.

How you doing good afternoon?

We on the grapevine

I'm doing

well.

I just have a few points to help young people.

I am totally debt-free.

I haven't worked in seven years because I planned.

I planned.

I own my own house.

No mortgage.

I own my own car.

No note.

But black people, we keep buying discretionary income stuff with credit.

It's stupid.

It's stupid.

I remember, you know, if you are a renter, why are you buying designer

clothes?

You're stupid.

You're stupid.

You know, there's no other way to put it.

You're stupid.

You know, you're stupid.

You know, when, when I, I realized being a renter early on when I had three kids, somebody could put me out.

So I focused on owning a home.

I got my credit straight.

I saved money.

I didn't buy, I didn't buy a new car for three years because I was focusing on owning a house.

And I'm gonna leave you with this.

My daddy told me my mother and father were from the Caribbean like you

And

I'm from New York and we from Trini.

I'm like Trini Trini Trini people in the building

and My mother and father brought a house and we didn't own a car and when we used to walk to the grocery store in New York And I complain I complain once to my dad why we walking to the grocery store and he said to me these people are riding

to the grocery store and come back into somebody else's house.

You walk into your own.

Hmm.

Hmm.

You know, people, you know, that's some truth there.

Yeah, it is.

That is some

truth.

Stop.

Stop with this discretionary spending when you don't, you know, you can't even pay rent.

No, you're right.

Yeah.

You're right.

100% need

to focus on.

And it's very sad.

I'm going to leave you with this very sad to see older people my age that still have to work.

Yeah,

I don't

and now they're talking about social security and Medicaid gonna run out in 2032

Well, nothing you said that you need to focus on another show is investments.

I have investments.

Yeah, and we and when young people when you look for a job a Permanent job.

I'm not talking about McDonald's look for jobs that pay in stocks I work for shame and and they paid in stock

They paid

your money, but they match stocks

And I took money aside and every matching thing they had, that's like our money now.

Pay attention, Black people, pay attention.

Yep, absolutely.

No, you are a hundred percent, a thousand percent right, Miss Charlotte.

And we are going to have a deeper conversation about the importance of investing our finances.

So I would love if you call back in and share some of your story on that.

We might do that tomorrow when Shannon is actually in studio.

So that would be super dope.

We got Tim on the line, y'all.

Tim reached out, said he had a situation at Gauss.

How you doing, man?

Talk to us.

How do we elevate your truth today?

Well, first of all, good afternoon to you all.

Good afternoon.

I just wanted to call and then ask.

Um, I said the message, obviously you guys had a conversation that kind of deals with what I was talking to when I'm talking about.

I'm going to try to quickly go through it.

I walk into Dallas, probably about 11 this morning, somewhere in the 1112.

Um, and I went for a purpose.

So I go straight, straight to the meat department.

So when I go to the meat department, you know, every meat department has this space where you can usually see the workers back there doing whatever they're doing.

I went to that area, so I'm standing there.

There's two girls in there.

One, they're like to the left and right of each other, working.

They're rapping.

They are working.

They're working.

Well, one girl stopped and went to go over to talk to the other girl.

When she walked over, they both kind of peeking over there and they see me standing there.

She go over there.

They laugh and a few minutes later, she come out the blinds or whatever they call them and walks right past and it goes to the left.

Didn't acknowledge me or nothing And I'm saying this is about five minutes in she comes back now Those two were in there in front of me in front of one of the counters the counters is fair in front of where you can view them There's a white coat laying over the counter and a black cap

Hmm

still nobody comes so I get a little loud.

I wonder like where is everybody else?

How long do I have to wait?

I'm still waiting.

I walk to the front.

I say, how long do I have to wait before I ask the question?

Because at that point, that's all I had was a question.

Right.

I go to the front.

Oh, they give me all kinds of excuses.

One of the excuses was, oh, well, they don't speak English.

OK.

All right.

So that's an excuse.

OK.

No.

Instead of anybody coming to me and acknowledging me that works there, there was a guy there with a pink shirt on who would allow me to be the manager of something.

And he hears me talking to them.

Now he calls out and he says, why are you being disrespectful?

Really?

Right.

Now you don't want to be disrespectful after you

were paying customers.

Now I'm going to want to be disrespectful.

Been ignored for dang near 10 minutes now at this point.

10 minutes a good 10 minutes no response no nothing and then that's the response I get

yeah, absolutely

and what I did what I did was I stood in the middle of that store and I talked to everybody in that store I Explained how that store originated.

I may not know the year.

I may not know nothing, but I know it was black owned Hmm

You said say that

again.

Now they don't came into the community and this is what I'm hollering.

You don't came into our community.

I have never heard you give back to the community.

I have never heard your name as a sponsor to any community group.

Hmm.

Never.

Yeah, I can't say that I that I've heard either.

I know one of the stores they are bought from Lena's if I'm not mistaken.

Correct.

A couple.

A

couple of them.

They were black socialite.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You talking about Lena originally?

Yeah, they had Lena who was on North Avenue.

That was a save a lot.

And they also had one on what's that, Titania and Capital as well, if

I'm not mistaken.

That's the one I was at.

That's the one I was at, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

But I

know

that

family.

But it just goes back and goes back to the thing.

They sold that

company to, I think, this is some Arabs that own it now?

Yeah, yeah.

Got

it.

Yeah.

And so, and that was my point, like you're in our community.

You're in our community.

We never hear about you.

We never hear about you.

And

then I just heard somebody talking about the Black Dollar.

We got to watch where we spend our Black Dollar.

100%.

Period.

Well, I don't know if you know.

But there is Sherman Park Grocery Store right on Sherman and North Avenue.

And I just said I gotta hold myself accountable and make sure I'm prioritizing and going to these, you know, businesses that will keep us.

So that's another conversation.

That's another conversation.

Black people, black businesses need grace, man.

We need grace.

We need grace.

You got to think of how much of entrepreneurship we was left out at as a community like Respect and this is this is not trying to make this no race thing or nothing, but the truth is a lot of white people Pass businesses down to their families We passed down debt

So when we get into business and things of that nature, we don't necessarily always have the experience, but we try it.

We always, we always say, oh, you know, the others had a 400 year head start.

So yeah, I try to give our people a little bit, a little bit of grace, but there is things we got to work on as a community though.

We do gotta work on our customer service.

We do gotta work on being open when we say we gonna be open.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

We'll be right back after these

messages.

What up, y'all?

Welcome back.

Welcome back to the award-winning 1017, The Truth.

It's your boy Ray Nitty holding it down on the grapevine.

Hope y'all feeling real fine.

Man, we talking about... Man, we was talking about debt.

Then we talked about what keeps us in debt.

Then we talked about ownership.

And being intentional about our buying power, our spending power, 1.6 trillion is what we represent as a community.

And we had cousin Tim called in and gave an example about a situation that he had at Gall's Foods where he was ignored.

And the excuse that they gave him was like, oh, they don't speak English.

You know, shots out to the chat.

They said a new coat can cost you.

10 to $50, that's nothing if you need one.

She said, I don't know how old she said she was, but back then, you don't know, $50 might be a lot to somebody back then.

$50 might be a lot.

Shoot, I remember, I had been not looking at no $80 shoes.

My mama would take me under that warehouse shoes tent.

They used to be on Silver Spring.

We weren't even going inside warehouse shoes.

We was under the tent.

Go get you some of them Reebok soldiers and classics for twenty eight ninety nine.

Get you a few colors, too, so you can last throughout the school year.

Abstract noir says you can't complain when other people come into black communities, owning stores when black community isn't that business savvy.