As far as I know, the ONLY individual to build his wealth purely from paper assets, is Warren Buffet and he is the BEST. That should tell you how challenging it can be to make the stock market your first line of defense in wealth building. There is a guy he went to school under by the name of John Templeton, a f*cking Wall Street legend. He has a book that is in any Borders or Barnes and Noble. It is a thick oldie but goodie. Listen, the fundamentals never change. You can start out small, monitor it with a great advisory service and come out big in 5 to 7 years. That is with great advice.
If you are black and don't work on Wall Street, stereotypically, it is too late for you. That's just the truth. You must have the best information and that is in any situation. Blacks rarely have it but getting better every day. When you start getting information that doesn't sound like everybody else's, you might...just might, be onto something. Unless you are dropping big money coming in on IPO's, private placements or institutional investing, all the success stories need to be disclaimered with "these results are atypical." The sh!t is hard but not impossible. Invest in knowledge then go!