The journey to understanding wealth—what it truly means, how to cultivate it, and how to preserve it —has long been a path littered with myths, distractions, and systemic challenges for millions of Americans of all types. Ben’s “Building BLK Wealth” serves as a beacon of clarity and empowerment, cutting through the noise to address the urgent need for economic equity and financial literacy within the Black community and beyond.

Ben’s voice is one of both authenticity and authority. He doesn’t shy away from sharing his own missteps—those pivotal failures that taught him the critical lessons this book now offers to all who are willing to learn. Through his experiences, he illuminates the intersection of personal resilience and strategic action, and in doing so, he builds a case for why the stakes have never been higher.

As someone who has witnessed firsthand the transformative power of informed decision-making, intentional planning, and spurning conventional wisdom, I am inspired by Ben’s commitment to arming readers with practical tools for financial growth. This book goes beyond theory, presenting actionable steps that can guide individuals and families toward building generational wealth—steps that are accessible to everyone, regardless of where they are starting from.

“Building BLK Wealth” is not just a book; it’s a call to action. Ben challenges us to rethink the conventional wisdom, to embrace financial education as a lifelong pursuit, and to take ownership of our economic futures. He reminds us that wealth is not just about dollars and cents — it’s about freedom, legacy, and the ability to shape a better tomorrow for our families and communities.

As you turn these pages, be prepared to reflect, to challenge your assumptions, and most importantly, to act. Whether you are a seasoned investor or someone just beginning your financial journey, Ben’s unwavering commitment to showcasing the best financial strategies for Americans, coupled with his invaluable insights, will meet you where you are and help guide you to where you want to be.

It is an honor to introduce this vital work, and I am confident that it will leave an indelible impact on its readers, as it has on me.

Can you feel the struggle? It’s okay to say yes. Because there is a struggle going on… And it’s happening right here in America.

What if I told you that it is projected that we are ONE generation away from the United States of America experiencing the level of poverty of a Third World Country?

Would you believe me?

Probably not because of the WMDs (weapons of mass distraction). But it’s true. As of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the median net worth of Black American families was approximately $44,900. By comparison, and not by competition, the median net worth of White American families was approximately $284,500.

But did you know that in only one generation from now (by 2053), the median net worth of Black American families is projected to be ZERO ($0)? If these projections in the “Road to Zero Wealth” report by the Institute for Policy Studies are true, then this will be a seismic catastrophe for all Americans, not just Black Americans.

Can you imagine your children and grandchildren experiencing the level of poverty of a Third World Country? Can you imagine 10.4 million Black American families struggling even more than they struggle today? It has been said that when America has a cold, Black America has pneumonia.

But, God works in mysterious ways.

What are the chances that I would meet a well-known Wealth Preservationist & Certified Financial Fiduciary®, who happens to be a Black American, working on his magnum opus (the most important work of his life) one morning in the sauna?

I still remember my first encounter and introduction to Benjamin (Ben) Green. I had my eyes closed praying and meditating when I heard an assertive voice say, “you know, around the world the sauna is considered a sacred place for meditation.”

He was respectfully speaking to the chatter boxes in the sauna with us. And it worked, they stopped talking so much, and I was able to go deeper in to my meditation. I was grateful.

Several minutes went by and once I opened my eyes, I realized it was just Ben and I in the sauna. I hesitated because I didn’t want to break the sacred rule, but felt I had to introduce myself to him… Even though he was in deep focus. And, I’m glad I did.

Ben Green is the most brilliant financial mind I have ever encountered… And he has become a great friend of mine to boot. He cares deeply about the “Road to Zero Wealth” problem facing the future generations of Americans.

I feel blessed to have the opportunity to help him raise awareness and solve this potential seismic financial catastrophe facing all Americans, not just Black Americans. Building BLK Wealth is the most important book of this generation. I encourage you to answer the call and read this incredible book with your family and loved ones, just like I am.

FOREWORD – By Alan Grissom
INTRODUCTION – By Anthony Ragland
CHAPTER 1 – Conventional Wisdom
CHAPTER 2 – Personal Failures
CHAPTER 3 – The Five Thieves
CHAPTER 4 – The Zero Wealth Hour
CHAPTER 5 – Why Care?
CHAPTER 6 – Street Cred
CHAPTER 7 – Professional Cred
CHAPTER 8 – The Key Questions
CHAPTER 9 – The Mindset
CHAPTER 10 – Building Generational Wealth
CHAPTER 11 – Financial Literacy & Competency
CHAPTER 12 – The Five Thieves Revisited
CHAPTER 13 – The Wealth Builder’s Blueprint
CHAPTER 14 – The Name Game
CHAPTER 15 – Pimp Your Career
CHAPTER 16 – BLK Entrepreneurship
CHAPTER 17 – Family Business
CHAPTER 18 – Dividend Investing
CHAPTER 19 – Real Estate
CHAPTER 20 – Employee Benefits & Individual Insurance
CHAPTER 21 – Property & Casualty Insurance
CHAPTER 22 – Medicare
CHAPTER 23 – Social Security
CHAPTER 24 – Long-Term Care Costs & Considerations
CHAPTER 25 – Annuities
CHAPTER 26 – Estate Planning
CHAPTER 27 – Life Insurance
CHAPTER 28 – Juvenile Life Insurance
CHAPTER 29 – Alternative Investments & Crypto
CHAPTER 30 – Tax Reduction
CHAPTER 31 – Tax Reduction in Retirement
CHAPTER 32 – Fees
CHAPTER 33 – Geographic Arbitrage
CHAPTER 34 – The Holy Grail: Passive Income
CHAPTER 35 – Health = Wealth
CHAPTER 36 – The Big Payoff
CHAPTER 37 – Taking Action
CHAPTER 38 – Additional Resources
CHAPTER 39 – The Case Studies
CHAPTER 40 – The Pro Athlete Financial Playbook
CHAPTER 41 – Asset Allocations for Different Ages
CHAPTER 42 – Blueprint For Wealth Building & Preservation
CHAPTER 43 – The Retirement Income Plan

On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:45 pm Tokyo time, I was ballin’! I had just moved back to Tokyo, the world’s largest city. I was six weeks into a VP of Asia Pacific role where I was managing 10 staff members who had asked the big boss to bring me back to Japan.

I was being paid a great salary (especially for a single guy), I had a dope apartment near the train station in Tokyo’s equivalent of Beverly Hills, and my “Pimp Pad” furniture was arriving the next day to top everything off. I recall it vividly. It was around 2:45 pm and I was:

A. Going over final revenue projections for Q3 with Yuko, my Japanese country manager

B. Thinking about the massive bonus I was about to receive after we hit our numbers in Q3

C. Congratulating myself on the furniture that was about to arrive at my Pimp Pad

D. Smiling inside because of the 3 dates I had set up over the long holiday weekend starting in just 3 hours (I did mention that I was single, right?)

E. Admiring Tokyo Tower from the top floor of our office
D. Reflecting on how far I had come from the country roads of South Carolina and the streets of Atlanta

To put it mildly, I was pretty pleased with myself… I thought I was on top of the world at 2:45 pm Tokyo time.

And then – SNAP.

Or… “Rumble” to be exact.

On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:46 pm, my world changed forever.One hundred miles up and a few miles off the coast of Japan near a city called Fukushima, the Earth started shaking in what became one of the largest earthquakes in human history.

In 20 seconds, my staff and I went from confusion & silence, to concern, to panic, and then to hauling ass down the steps and outside of the 9-story building that I thought was going to collapse and kill us all.

I’ve experienced earthquakes before, so I thought this one was going to be like the other ones. The previous seven earthquakes I had been through weren’t a big deal at all. A little rumbling, and they were gone in a few seconds.

On March 9th (two days before this one) we had a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that lasted about 10 seconds. It shook us up a good bit, but we shook it off and headed out for a team lunch right after it.

For the earthquake-uninitiated (which I pray to God you are), the amount of energy released during an earthquake increases by a factor of about 32 for every level you go up.

For example, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake releases 32 times more energy than a magnitude 5.0; a 7.0 releases about 1,000 times more energy, and a magnitude 8.0 releases about 32,000 times more energy than a 5.0. The March 11th Fukushima earthquake was a 9.0.

In earthquake preparation drills, the conventional training is to “shelter where you are”, or stay where you are inside the building. Why? Because many people die when coming out of buildings due to falling windows and other debris.

But in that moment, when I realized I was responsible for 10 lives, and when I realized that my parents would probably have to come retrieve my body from Tokyo, I defied conventional wisdom and called my team to action. Or in plain English, I looked at a few of my team members, saw the concern turn to fear in their eyes, and told everybody to haul ass down the 9 flights of stairs. I was the last one out as we hauled ass to safety and stable ground, thankfully without any injuries along the way.

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Little did I know, about one hundred miles north along the coast, in a small fishing village named Fukushima, the same decision-making process was playing itself out at 2 elementary schools.

At one elementary school, the teachers followed the conventional wisdom and the earthquake training drills they had been given time and time again. They told about 80 students to gather in the courtyard just like they had practiced.

At the other school down by the beach, the Japanese teachers at that school analyzed the situation, thought about the conventional wisdom, and at the moment of truth, said “Ikimashoo!” (Let’s get out of here)! Those teachers grabbed the students and literally headed for the hills.

Unfortunately & fortunately, the rest is history. The 80 children who were led by their teachers that followed the conventional wisdom were lost forever. They all perished at the snap of a finger in the tsunami that ultimately claimed 20,000 lives.
But what happened to the brave, out-of-the box thinking teachers who defied conventional wisdom? They lived, and so did the children that they were responsible for.

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In the exact same way, with the exact same type of decision process, today millions of Americans of all backgrounds face critical periods in their lives where they have to block out the conventional wisdom, mass media, and WMDs (weapons of mass distraction) as they decide what actions to take and what path to follow to improve their lives and the lives of people they care about. The average American is broke.

• Sixty percent (60%) of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
• Fifty percent (50%) of Americans have less than $1,000 in emergency savings in a bank account.
• Forty percent (40%) of Americans have their highest credit card debt of all time.
• But perhaps the most confusing and surprising stat, is that thirty-six percent (36%) of people who make over $250,000 a year live paycheck to paycheck.

To top it off, tens of millions of Americans have deferred their student loans, have little hope of saving up enough money to buy a house, and are delaying the start of their families due to a number of factors including debt, low savings for a home purchase, zero dollars ($0) in retirement savings, and the fact that raising a child will cost $300,000 on average going forward.
In a country that accounts for only 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s GDP and 60% of the world’s stock market capitalization, these numbers above represent a great tragedy, but an even greater opportunity.

The United States has created more wealth for its citizens than any country in history. While this book shines a light on the challenge of wealth creation and preservation for Black Americans, the mission of this book is to help hard-working, self-aware Americans (of all hues) harness these wealth generation opportunities and build better futures for themselves and their families to make this country healthier, happier, and wealthier for all.

In the coming chapters you will be able to dig into the topics that are most relevant to you as you embark on your wealth-building and wealth preservation journey.

God bless you, and I wish you godspeed on your wealth building journey.

As you can see, Ben Green has been around the world and back, a couple dozen times. A native of Columbia, SC, Ben is the Co-Founder of Ready2Retire™, a firm that is on track to become the leading retirement income planning and wealth preservation firm in the US. Ben has a great appreciation for customer service and client satisfaction honed from more than 20 years of experience, and is recognized nationwide as a top retirement, insurance, Medicare, and Social Security planner.

Ben is also President & COO of Insurance Advantage, an employee benefits agency he co-founded 13 years ago. He has over 3,000 clients, and including his volunteer work with the Foundation for Financial Education where he has provided financial counseling for staff at the CIA, Pentagon, Dept. of Treasury, The Tennessee Titans, The Washington Commanders, and dozens of other agencies and companies, he has provided financial literacy and counseling to over 10,000 people.
Ben has previously served as COO of a human resources staffing firm, and as Vice President of Asia & Europe for an American software company.

Ben has extensive experience in economic development and consulting, and worked as a Business Recruiter for South Carolina. Since Ben opened the Japan office in 2012, South Carolina has received over $2.2 billion in investment. In 2014, he was hired to write the Strategic Plan for the (entire) State of South Carolina, and has advocated for high-speed rail lines to be added to the transportation mix in South Carolina and the rest of the Southeast for the last 5 years.
Based on 10 years working overseas in Japan, Brazil, & Spain, he wrote the Amazon Best Seller The Global Superstar: How Your Students Can Develop an Advantage over Global Competition to help students prepare for careers in this changing economy.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Morehouse College, an International MBA from The University of South Carolina, and certificates from UNC and Temple University. He’s conversant in Japanese, Portuguese, & Spanish, and has served on numerous boards including the South Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities association, the SC Chamber of Commerce, and the Columbia (SC) Chamber of Commerce. He’s a member of the Nashville City Club & the Nashville Kiwanis Club.

Ben splits time between his homes in Nashville, TN and Columbia, SC with his wife and their two wonderful daughters. He loves traveling, spending time with friends, spending time with his family, and helping his clients win in retirement.

Certifications & Education:

• B.A. in Finance, Morehouse College, 1997
• International Banking & Finance Continuing Education Certificate, Temple University Japan, 1998
• Certificate in Brazilian Business & Portuguese Language, University of Sao Paulo, 2002
• International MBA, University of South Carolina, 2003
• Certified Mutual Fund Specialist certificate, 2006 – Present
• Economic Development Certificate, University of North Carolina, 2007
• Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Certifications, 2012 – Present
• Medicare Certifications, 2016 – Present
• Long-Term Care Insurance Certifications, 2016 – Present
• Fixed Annuity Certifications, 2019 – Present
• Certified Financial Fiduciary® designation, 2023 – Present

States we are licensed in:

• SC, NC, GA, TN, KY, VA, MD, DC, CT, NJ, TX, LA, MS, FL, IL, PA, CA, AZ, NM, WA
• Wherever you are, we can help you out (once we get licensed in that state). Licensing usually takes less than 5 days.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
– Calvin Coolidge

What are the true keys to building & preserving wealth?

Here are the keys in summary:

1. Education (learning from books/websites/videos/successful people & advisors)

2. Emulation (learning from others and not re-inventing the wheel)

3. Implementation (Action)

4. Persistence

5. Focus

6. Iteration (Kaizen (改善) -> Constant Education & Improvement)

That’s it. If you follow these 6 keys, you will be successful over time.

The Truth – Part I

I wrote Building BLK Wealth™ to cover everything when it comes to building & preserving generational wealth. What do I mean by “everything”? I mean EVERYTHING! This book is comprehensive… It’s 43 chapters… And over 280 pages.

If you are a regular person who doesn’t want to read through all of this, that’s not a problem. Just book a time with one of our team members at: https://www.ready2retire.net/schedule-consult and we’ll create a customized wealth building & preservation strategy that is relevant for your particular situation.

The Truth – Part II

The book Building BLK Wealth™ was written to help everyone and anyone that wants to build wealth and improve their lives. Although this book draws specific attention to the unbelievably alarming potential plight of Black Americans, the contents of this book can be utilized by all Americans. America is stronger when everyone has opportunities to build wealth. In the book Building BLK Wealth, “BLK” symbolizes:

A. Building Lifelong Knowledge

B. Building Lifelong Kapital (the German word for capital)

C. Boldly Leveraging Knowledge

D. Business, Legacy, Knowledge

E. Building Lifelong K’s (thousands)

F. Better Lives & Knowledge

G. No matter the meaning that you choose when you read the book, we hope that you use this book to help you build wealth, health, and happiness.

The Truth – Part III

This book should contain very little that people find “controversial”. Because its “actionable”. Black Americans don’t have time to mess around with political “correctness”, since by some measures, Black wealth may go to ZERO by the year 2053, so this book is designed to be neither “politically correct” nor “politically incorrect”. This book was written to help people get things done. This book is designed to help you:

• Build wealth
• Protect wealth
• Enjoy greater financial, mental, and physical health
• Improve the lot of your family and all Americans by educating one segment that has fallen behind economically.

With that said, let’s get to work.