Garden City lawyer launches Generational Wealth Book Club

Rhonda Maco doesn’t want people to just chase money. She wants them to know how to grow it.

Maco said her Garden City law practice, which includes estate planning, entrepreneurship and business development, litigation and legacy planning, magnified for her the reality of the financial knowledge gap in the Black community. That inspired her to start the Generational Wealth Book Club, a monthly meetup in Baldwin with recommendations for personal finance books and programs to help families create and sustain generational wealth.

"The playing field is still not level for African Americans," said Maco, 56, of Baldwin. "We’re still playing catch-up. A lot of things we weren’t taught. We had trauma handed down from generations, there have been external and internal barriers."

Nationally, the median Black household has a $44,100 net worth compared to $284,310 for white households, or about 15 cents for every $1, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an advocacy organization focused on advancing wealth equity. The national median household income for Black households was $56,020 in 2024 compared to the average of $83,810 for white households. The income gap is smaller but still exists on Long Island, where the 2024 median income for white households was $134,764 compared with $126,203 for Black households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Beyond that wealth gap, Maco said there can be a lack of familiarity with or confidence in the tools that generate wealth.

ROOTS OF INEQUITY

There are historic reasons why some Black people lack confidence in financial institutions, Maco said. She pointed to the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, created by Congress in 1865 to offer a safe depository for formerly enslaved people and Black Union veterans to build financial security. But Freedman’s fraud and predatory management led to its downfall. The bank’s white trustees funneled its assets into speculative investments and unsecured, risky loans to businesses, friends and family, according to the Treasury department, which led the abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass to call the bank "the Black man’s cow but the white man’s milk."

When Freedman’s closed in 1874, more than 61,000 depositors lost $3 million, or the equivalent of more than $80 million today, according to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Maco believes this contributed to today’s racial wealth gap because the first generation of Black wealth post-slavery was gutted.

STARTING CONVERSATIONS

Marie Taylor, a financial adviser and wealth strategist at Edward Jones in West Hempstead, sees tremendous value in Maco’s club.

"It creates a safe place to have conversations that many families historically have not had — not only about saving and investing, but about ownership, estate planning, entrepreneurship, financial decision-making and our relationship with money itself," Taylor said. "Before we can change a pattern, we must be willing to identify it and talk about it.

A 2019 study from the think tank TIAA Institute and The George Washington University School of Business said increasing financial literacy was important for addressing the racial wealth gap. The report found that Black survey respondents answered 38% of personal finance questions correctly compared with 55% for white respondents.

Annamaria Lusardi, one the study’s authors and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said financial skills is the variable that likely does not get enough attention in addressing the issue. She said a group like Maco’s can "absolutely" help.

"Finance is a difficult topic so if you tell people to do it by themselves, it’s probably hard to do," she said. "Having a club is making it accessible, friendly, not menacing."

Marlene Munn, who co-owns the Book Nook with her husband, Roberto Joseph, said she is thrilled to host the club. "We feel that it’s very important for people to understand financial literacy and how to provide for their families, so we were all in," she said. "We welcome opportunities for people to participate in activities that can only strengthen our communities."

Maco hosted a soft launch Sept. 29 at the Book Nook in Baldwin, which drew about 30 people.

Attendee Justin Jenkins, 35, a high-performance coach and behavioral strategist from Rosedale, Queens, said he would like to explore buying investment property and to open a wellness center in his community. He wants to create wealth to pass on to his daughter, who is 3.

"The learning process excites me, and I can see . . . [the club] won’t be just about learning about money, but the networking opportunities," he said. "There was a mix of professional people in the room of varying ages. We will learn from each other."

MEETINGS PLUS ACTION

The first monthly book club meetings will begin in January 2027 with a cap of 50 people. Over the course of a year, members will read a personal finance book each month ("The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason is up first) that is discussed at a meeting. A second monthly meeting will be focused on how to carry out its advice. Maco calls it "Execution Day," where lessons and financial education become real. People will take steps toward their goals, like opening high-yield savings and brokerage accounts, and setting up estate plans, Maco said.

"Even if one family takes action, does even one thing that changes their finances, then that would be success," said Delali Madison, an attorney focused on civil rights and estate planning who will co-host the book club with Maco.

5 CORE PRINCIPLES

There are five core principles of the book club — mindset renewal, creating systems, accumulating assets, protecting wealth and wealth transfer, Maco said, adding that first principle is key. "We have to talk about our relationship with money, because at the end of the day, how you perceive money will dictate how you operate with money," she said.

Ideally, members will hold each other accountable, she said. The thinking is, "It starts with me and grows with us," explained Madison.

Maco, the fifth of eight children and a first-generation college graduate, said finances were tight growing up, though the family always had food on the table. "My mother didn’t get to finish college; I took up the torch for her and vowed to make the most of my education," said Maco, now a married mother of two. "I want to help others similarly situated."

Taylor said she hopes the Generational Wealth Book Club’s benefits last long beyond its meetings.

"It is what happens after people close the book," she said. "The conversations around the kitchen table, the questions we finally ask our parents and children, and ultimately, the actions we take."

Newsday’s Arielle Martinez contributed to this story.