Here's the advice that set up multi-generational wealth for this Black family

Ivory Johnson is the founder of Delancey Wealth Management and a member of the CNBC Financial Advisors Council.  In this interview, I asked him how issues of social justice interact with issues of economic justice. 

Johnson told me it starts with a simple question: What creates wealth?

Johnson, a certified financial planner, discusses tax policies that favor wealthy people, skilled versus unskilled workers and the value of passing on skills.

Johnson is not just a savvy financial advisor, he's also a great storyteller.

More from Invest in You:
No money? No expertise? Ditch your excuses and start investing anyway
Employers face reckoning from the George Floyd protests - pressure to close the racial wage gap
Here's how the pandemic is reshaping career planning for college students

Here's my favorite: When Johnson got his first significant job, he wanted to buy a fancy car.  His dad suggested he get a car with a shower in it, because if he was going to spend that much money on a vehicle, he might as well live in it.  He advised him to buy an apartment, not a fancy car, because an automobile is a depreciating asset.

Now Johnson owns an apartment, he is going to give it to his son.

Johnson notes that the first thing many people who grow up poor want to do when they come into money is to prove they are not, in fact, poor anymore — so they buy expensive things. Bad idea.

As for the current buying frenzy by retail investors, Johnson says he understands the impulse. His 22-year-old son was buying beaten-up airlines during the recent chaos. Johnson discusses what his role as a financial advisor is to people who want to invest short-term and long-term.

What worries Johnson? High up on his list is the role the Federal Reserve is playing in propping up not just the economy, but even poorly performing companies. 

Another story he shared was that he sees weak companies as old, limping zebras. When a lion comes around, the old zebras are naturally worried, because they are the slowest and weakest in the pack. Now imagine someone (e.g., the Federal Reserve) comes and puts a fence around the lion. The weak zebra can live on a lot longer. 

The point, Johnson said, is that you are already at the end of the business expansion. Now you have leveraged balance sheets with companies with no cash flow. 

That's a problem.

 SIGN UP: Money 101 is an 8-week learning course to financial freedom, delivered weekly to your inbox.

CHECK OUT: If you invested $500 in 2010 according to Warren Buffett's advice, here's how much you'd have now via Grow with Acorns+CNBC.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.