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The Latino wealth gap in America is large. While Latinos have the highest workforce participation rate and are leading homeownership and new business formations, closing the wealth gap has been slow. According to the most recent Fed Survey of Consumer Finances, Latino families have one-fifth of the wealth as the typical Anglo-American family. We live in a capitalistic society, so I think it goes without saying that this is an important issue, and there are plenty of well-documented events that got us here including some that are pretty sordid. However, I’m not going to get into that here. The question is what do we do about it and how can we fix it? Without question, any solution will be difficult and complex, but I like to think of things in simple terms and I am a fan of the rule of three. So, if I had three silver bullets here is what I would do:
Increase Housing Supply by 5 Million Units to Boost Homeownership
Homeownership is the gateway to the middle class. Despite what some say, home equity remains the largest source of wealth for most Americans, and investing in real estate is almost a sure thing over time. Currently, less than 50% of Latinos own their home, but a lot of that is due to the youth of the Latino population, and most experts predict that Latinos will account for the majority of homeownership gains in America over the next twenty years. The biggest impediment to increasing Latino homeownership is a nationwide shortage of housing supply. Adding roughly 5 million additional units to the market would boost Latino homeownership substantially.
Increase the Amount of Capital Invested in Latino-led Start-ups by a Factor of 10
When Latino-owned companies succeed, not only is it good for the owners and employees of that company, it encourages more investment into Latino projects and communities. Let me explain. When Latino companies achieve scale, they sometimes get so big that they take market share from other, larger companies and corporations. The corporations respond by hiring more Latinos in key positions and investing in other projects that capitalize on the growth in the Latino market. I’ve seen this happen firsthand, and believe there is much more opportunity here than most people realize. We complain a lot about the lack of representation that Latinos have in the media and entertainment industries. We can continue to complain or we can find more ways to drive more investment into Latino-led production companies. Those companies are more likely to hire Latino writers, actors, and directors, and if they are really successful, you watch how quickly Disney, Warner, Amazon, and Netflix follow suit. I am a partner in L’ATTITUDE Ventures, which provides me with a new perspective on the issue. I can tell you that the talent is there, it is just a matter of getting more capital to the right companies. Currently, Latino-led start-ups receive less than 2% of the venture capital. Latinos are 18% of the overall population and 23% of the millennial population. If Latino-led start-ups received 20% of the venture money invested each year, it would create a multiplier effect, that would be a game-changer. It’s all about the capital. Can you imagine the cascading impact it would have if the most prolific entrepreneurs in America had names like Garcia, Hernandez, and Gonzalez instead of Zuckerberg, Gates, and Musk?
Teach Financial Education in Public Schools
It is amazing to most people that excluding college, we all spend more than a dozen years in school and are taught nothing about finances or investing. Education is the great equalizer; if Latino kids learned about these things at an early age, it would change economic mobility in ways we can’t even imagine. I’m not sure why more people aren’t talking about this. Wealth is a factor of access, but it’s also a fact of knowledge. Politicians talk a lot about the importance of education, but you rarely hear them speak about the kind of education that can have the largest impact on lifting our communities – and I never hear them speak about teaching financial education in public schools. If we are serious about closing the wealth gaps in America, it starts with educating our kids about building wealth.
I can’t wait to talk more about this in the coming months.
I was watching a podcast recently, and something about it rubbed me the wrong way — but it also got my wheels turning. In this episode, I talk about what I love most about being American, why the system that built this country deserves more appreciation than it gets, and why some of the loudest “love it or leave it” voices go strangely quiet when powerful billionaires openly criticize the very system that made their success possible. This is a conversation about America, double standards, and what real patriotism should actually look like.
This April, the Hispanic Wealth Project is launching its High Net Worth Boot Camp, a 10-week intensive built around some of the most valuable wealth-building education I’ve seen. In this episode, I talk about why so many of us need to shift from a worker’s mentality to an owner’s mentality, why economic success has to move from consumption to wealth building, and why building wealth takes knowledge, work, and discipline. The High Net Worth Boot Camp is designed to help close that knowledge gap with modules on securities investing, real estate investments, buying and selling businesses, asset protection, and tax strategies. If building real wealth has ever felt out of reach or unclear, this is the kind of education that can change how we think and what we build.
The data tells a powerful story: Latinos are driving economic growth in America. If Latino Americans were a standalone country, we’d be the fifth-largest economy in the world, and without Latino homebuyers, the number of homeowners in America would have declined in 2025. So why doesn’t it feel like we’re winning? In this episode, I talk about the gap between growth and perception, why we still don’t have enough strong voices shaping the national conversation, and why purchasing power alone is not enough. Growth matters, but wealth matters more. This is a conversation about leadership, visibility, and what it will really take for our community to turn momentum into lasting power.