Excellent question.  It’s best summarized by this February 2015 article in the New Republic.

In July 2014, the Federal Reserve released a report that outlined the growing retirement crisis in America. Nearly a third of Americans over the age of 18 have no retirement savings. Twenty-three percent of those between the ages of 45 and 59 have no savings or pension. But the Fed report overlooked an key part of this problem: Minorities are in far worse financial shape than white Americans.

That’s the finding of a new analysis from the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. A team of five researchers put the data narrative together, which consists of nine graphs that outline why the retirement crisis is so much worse for African-Americans and Hispanics. The largest reason for this gap is that Hispanics and African-Americans build up less wealth than white families over their lifetime. The gap is only getting worse. In 1983, the median white family had more than $100,000 in wealth, compared to less than $13,000 for African-American families—an eight-fold difference. By 2013, the median white family had 12 times the wealth of the median African-American family. The same is true of Hispanic families.

By age 61, the median white person has earned $2 million over their lifetime. The median African-American and Hispanic have earned $1.5 million and $1 million, respectively. The higher lifetime earnings allows whites to save more, and those savings earn more interest—wealth begets more wealth.

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So, based on what we view as a crisis of epic proportions being utterly ignored in the media and in Washington the only option we have is to educate ourselves and work to educate our friends and family. Yes, we could focus on the racism that fostered this income inequality but we don’t have time for that. We have to change our habits Today! We have to start saving our money. EARLY!… So it has time to grow.  The numbers don’t lie.  We have to act now.