My grandmother is associated with all kinds of wisdom. Whether it's about cooking, sewing, or babies, my grandmother has a lifetime's worth of knowledge stored up. She also knows how to remove stubborn stains and how to properly use bobby pins. Jasmine Smith*'s grandmother Clarice passed on different skills: real estate investing and property management. Real estate investing and real estate management," Jasmine says, "are two very different skills. And not just owning it, but maintaining it. Clarice taught her granddaughter carpentry at an early age. Glossing bathtubs, relighting pilots, installing carpets. Why pay someone else to do it?

Clarice was vocal about others' shortsighted spending choices. She explained that her neighbor could not travel like Jasmine's family because "she spent all her money on cigarettes." Clarice was determined to help Jasmine and her siblings and cousins build wealth in an area not exactly known as a financial capital. Their hometown of Inglewood, California, in the heart of Los Angeles, home to the Crips and the Bloods, has corner liquor stores and latticed windows everywhere.

Inglewood is nine miles from postcard-perfect Santa Monica and has a similarly sized population. On paper, this comparison is unfavorable: the median income of Inglewood residents is half that of Santa Monica, and the average home price is less than one-third that of Santa Monica. But these statistics do not represent the vibrancy of Inglewood, the tight-knit community, and the friendliness of its people. Clarice and Jasmine were both deeply proud to call it home. Clarice hung a plaque at the top of the front steps that read "Poverty Heights."

Facing her third and final battle with cancer, Clarice called Jasmine and asked if she would rent the house next door to her childhood home (now owned by Jasmine's aunt). Jasmine says she knew the answer was yes. Clarice wanted it. Jasmine was 20 years old and still in college. Clarice died a few months later.

After graduation, Jasmine returned to Inglewood and participated in the city's first low-income housing affordability program. Participants met twice a month in the evenings to learn the basics of finance. Jasmine laughs and says, "Things you should have learned in college but didn't." Jasmine still keeps the handouts she received from the class in a binder (e.g., letters to send to credit bureaus when she needs to rebuild her credit). (Jasmine regularly shares these materials with others who are following in her footsteps.) Participants received individual counseling sessions and were responsible for making regular deposits into their savings accounts. Jasmine recalls that although she was the youngest participant in the program, she felt like a peer, with participants in their 20s from all walks of life. She was also fortunate that, thanks to Clarice, she already had a house to buy.

Today, Jasmine has owned her home for 15 years. Inglewood is changing rapidly, with two major stadium projects and a subway station to the airport opening soon. With easy access to LAX, the beach, and the greater Los Angeles area, Inglewood is a hidden gem on the verge of being discovered by gentrifying forces. But Jasmine is not worried. I'm a homeowner," she says. Jasmine learned from her grandmother that owning real estate is a sure thing. Clarice gave Jasmine the gift of financial literacy, not quilts and lace doilies.

*Names have been changed.