{"id":7008944,"date":"2026-08-03T04:18:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/what-black-women-told-us-about-money-debt-wealth\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T04:18:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:18:05","slug":"what-black-women-told-us-about-money-debt-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7008944","title":{"rendered":"What Black Women Told Us About Money, Debt & Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Something has been true in every single Clever Girl Finance survey since we started running them in 2020: Black women make up the largest racial group in our community, consistently outpacing every other group we track \u2014 45% of respondents in 2020, 46.1% in 2022, and 50.6% in our most recent 2025 survey. Meaning over half the women in our most recent survey identify as Black or African American. You can see this trend for yourself across our full Women & Money survey series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s not a small detail. It means that when we talk about \u201cwhat women told us about money,\u201d we are, in large part, talking about what Black women specifically told us. And their financial reality deserves to be named directly, not folded quietly into an average.<\/p>\n

The numbers behind why this matters<\/h2>\n

Black women are navigating a financial landscape shaped by compounding, well-documented gaps that don\u2019t show up equally for every woman:<\/p>\n

Black Women earn 63 cents for every dollar white men earn<\/h3>\n

Compared to white men\u2019s earnings, white women earn 78 cents on the dollar, but Black women earn just 63 cents. That gap alone represents a massive amount of lost lifetime income before you even account for debt or investing. (Institute for Women\u2019s Policy Research, 2025<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Black Women carry the highest student loan balances of any group<\/h3>\n

Black women graduate with the highest average student loan balances of any group, and more than half of Black female college graduates report real difficulty repaying that debt. Largely because interest compounds faster than the wage gap allows it to shrink. (American Association of University Women<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Black families hold just 10 cents of wealth for every dollar white families have<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The median Black family in the U.S. holds roughly fifteen cents of wealth for every dollar held by the median white family. And that gap persists even among households with a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher. (Brookings Institution, 2024<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The \u2018Black Tax\u2019: Supporting family members comes at a real financial cost<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Many Black women supporting family members financially each month \u2014 sometimes called the \u201cBlack tax\u201d \u2014 face an added drain on savings that isn\u2019t factored into most standard financial advice. It\u2019s money that has to go somewhere else before it can go toward your own goals, and it can be genuinely hard to build momentum around.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t abstract statistics. They\u2019re the backdrop every Black woman in our community, and beyond it, is building her financial life against.<\/p>\n

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Expert tip: Plan for the Black tax<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re financially supporting family members each month \u2014 the \u201cBlack tax\u201d \u2014 don\u2019t treat it as a leak in your budget. Give it its own line item, just like rent or groceries, with an actual dollar amount attached. Naming it turns an invisible drain into a real, visible number you can plan around. And it makes it a lot easier to see what you actually have for your own goals, instead of feeling like your goals keep quietly losing to everyone else\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And yet, the data on resilience is just as real<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s what we want to sit with just as firmly: despite every one of those structural headwinds, the women in our community, the majority of whom are Black women, report actively investing, actively building emergency funds, and actively working toward becoming debt-free at meaningful, measurable rates, year after year. Explore the numbers behind that resilience in our Women & Money survey series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a coincidence, and it\u2019s not just individual grit either \u2014 though there\u2019s plenty of that too. It\u2019s what happens when financial education is actually built to be accessible, judgment-free, and relatable, instead of assuming a starting point (a wage gap-free one) that doesn\u2019t reflect most women\u2019s real lives.<\/p>\n