I'm Farai Chidea, and this is Our Body Politic extended edition.

I'm excited to share with you an extended version of our conversation from our show this week

between guest host and NPR correspondent, Cheryl Corley,

plus Washington Post personal finance columnist and author Michelle Singletary.

They cover all things personal finance from how to pick a financial planner

to how to deal with the fear that can come from managing your money.

So let's dive in.

Take it away, Cheryl.

I'm NPR correspondent, Cheryl Corley, sitting in for Farai Chidea. I'm talking financial planning

with Washington Post Personal Finance columnist and author Michelle Singletary. Hi, Michelle, thanks for

joining us. Thank you. I'm so glad to be here again. We've been

talking a lot on the show about home ownership and how crucial owning a home can be to build

wealth, especially for black families. How do you think home ownership fits into planning

your personal finances, particularly when it comes to wealth? Think of wealth is sort of like a pie and different slices of

the pie create your wealth. So one part is real estate, perhaps your home that you live in.

One part is retirement, non-retirement investing. I'm a big believer in that. We talk a lot about

saving for college and retirement, but you should invest to buy your car or to do home improvement so that you don't have to borrow.

When it comes to real estate, especially for African Americans, we are so tied to real estate as the way to create wealth.

It's only one part of that pie.

And I like to look at home ownership this way. It's just where you live. Because how do you reach the equity in that house? There's really two

ways. You sell, take the profit, or you borrow against the equity, which means debt. And so when it comes to homes and whether or not you bequef it to your heirs,

you have to look at, are they going to live there?

...