29 year-old Ephren Taylor, the self-professed "youngest African American CEO of a public company", steals millions from churchgoing investors from Atlanta to Texas.

Many have heard of Bernie Madoff, the New York investment consultant who stole billions from investors in one of the largest ponzi schemes in history.  Now the African American community has their own version with Ephren Taylor who apparently is also a multi-billion fraud.  Taylor is accused of swindling millions from individual investors in over 40 states; gaining their trust  by "preaching" his investment strategy to churchgoers across the country.

A few weeks ago we published an article about "The Most Trifling Black Woman in America".  Today turnabout is fair play as we spotlight Desmond Hatchett, a man with 30 children by 11 different women.

With all of these illegitimate children to support (on his minimum wage salary) Desmond is now asking for a break on his child support payments.

In addition 6 out of 10 NBA players are broke after 5 years of retirement.  To find out why check out the article on "Why Athletes Go Broke"

According to a recent study by the National Fair Housing Alliance, banks are doing a much better job maintaining bank-owned foreclosed homes in white neighborhoods than in minority neighborhoods.

In a report released last month the National Fair Housing Alliance.reported that at a rate of almost two to one bank-owned minority properties have more cases of boarded up windows, unkept lawns and other physical deficiencies that contribute to increasing urban blight and continue to drive down the property values in the neighborhoods.

White women make $10,784 less than their male counterparts.  For African American women its $19,575 less.  For Hispanic women its $23,873.  See the 2012 study here

I firmly believe that America is the greatest country on the earth and it is truly a land of opportunity for all.  The American dream is alive and well and many people of all races have had tremendous success.  With these positives in place, it is no wonder why there have been so many incredible achievements by African Americans in the 21st century to include the obvious - the first black president.

It is also true however that for far too many black men and women there is a shadowy specter of racism that impacts every aspect of life from schooling to employment.  This institutional racism forms an invisible barrier that many white people cannot see, many black people do not understand and many African Americans cannot avoid.  Today we shine the light on institutional racism so that we can know it, avoid it, and ultimately eliminate it.

Technically these 5 things can destroy the future of any young person trying to have financial success in America, but since we are writing for The Black Man Survival Guide we want to focus particularly on the obstacles as they relate to our young black men.  We already know that as African Americans we face many inequities in the US to include police harassment, institutional racism and in the case of the Trayvon Martin shooting, death at the hands of vigilante (in)justice.  We recently wrote a piece on  10 Corporate and Government Policies that Unfairly Punish Black Men that focuses on things like redlining, stop-and-frisk and other systems that make the quest for success an unequal proposition for people of color.  This article focuses on things that can knock you out of the box before you get started.  Some are directly in your control black men, so take heed and be smart.