The financial diaries : how American families cope in a world of uncertainty

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Title:

The financial diaries : how American families cope in a world of uncertainty

Author:

Morduch, Jonathan, author.

ISBN:

9780691172989

Personal Author:

Morduch, Jonathan, author.

Physical Description:

xii, 233 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Abstract:

Deep within the American Dream lies the belief that hard work and steady saving will ensure a comfortable retirement and a better life for one's children. But in a nation experiencing unprecedented prosperity, even for many families who seem to be doing everything right, this ideal is still out of reach. Authors Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider draw on the U.S. Financial Diaries, a project which follows the lives of 235 low- and middle-income families as they navigate through a year. Through the Diaries, Morduch and Schneider challenge popular assumptions about how Americans earn, spend, borrow, and save -- and they identify the true causes of distress and inequality for many working Americans. We meet real people, ranging from a casino dealer to a street vendor to a tax preparer, who open up their lives and illustrate a world of financial uncertainty in which even limited financial success requires imaginative -- and often costly -- coping strategies. Morduch and Schneider detail what families are doing to help themselves and describe new policies and technologies that will improve stability for those who need it most. Combining hard facts with personal stories, The Financial Diaries presents an inside look at the economic stresses of today's families and offers ideas for solving them.

Contents:

Introduction: A hidden inequality -- Worlds of uncertainty. Earning -- Spending -- Smoothing and spiking -- How families cope. Saving -- Borrowing -- Sharing -- New ways of seeing. Sometimes poor -- Secure and in control.

Subject Term:

Finance, Personal -- United States.

Financial security -- United States.

Poor families -- United States.

Middle class families -- United States.

Families -- Finance, Personal.

Personal finance.

Economic history. (OCoLC)fst00901974

Finance, Personal. (OCoLC)fst00924449

Financial security. (OCoLC)fst00924735

Middle class families. (OCoLC)fst01020470

Poor families. (OCoLC)fst01071206

Added Author:

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Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
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Summary

What the financial diaries of working-class families reveal about economic stresses, why they happen, and what policies might reduce them

Deep within the American Dream lies the belief that hard work and steady saving will ensure a comfortable retirement and a better life for one's children. But in a nation experiencing unprecedented prosperity, even for many families who seem to be doing everything right, this ideal is still out of reach.

In The Financial Diaries , Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider draw on the groundbreaking U.S. Financial Diaries, which follow the lives of 235 low- and middle-income families as they navigate through a year. Through the Diaries, Morduch and Schneider challenge popular assumptions about how Americans earn, spend, borrow, and save--and they identify the true causes of distress and inequality for many working Americans.

We meet real people, ranging from a casino dealer to a street vendor to a tax preparer, who open up their lives and illustrate a world of financial uncertainty in which even limited financial success requires imaginative--and often costly--coping strategies. Morduch and Schneider detail what families are doing to help themselves and describe new policies and technologies that will improve stability for those who need it most.

Combining hard facts with personal stories, The Financial Diaries presents an unparalleled inside look at the economic stresses of today's families and offers powerful, fresh ideas for solving them.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This sharp-eyed, sympathetic study from Morduch, a public policy and economics professor, and Schneider, a financial services company vice president, has a compelling new angle on the effects of long-term financial instability on working-class families. The authors' focus is on cash flow and how it can reveal instability that's not otherwise obvious from simple income information. They designed the titular financial diaries by recording a total financial picture for each of 235 households in five states: dollars earned, spent, and received in government entitlements. The study shows how cash-flow uncertainty prevents people from sticking with long- or even short-term financial plans. Using the narratives of a handful of survey respondents-including a casino card dealer and a performing arts teacher-the authors discuss various coping methods: saving, borrowing, and drawing on communities and networks. They also examine how pervasive financial uncertainty drains people's time and energy, citing a 2014 survey in which 92% of respondents said they would prefer economic stability to extra income. This is a must-read for anyone interested in causes of-and potential solutions to-American poverty. Agent: Ted Weinstein, Ted Weinstein Literary Management. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Choice Review

The financial diaries in question are drawn from surveys of more than 200 households in five states conducted during 2012 and 2013. Tracking the flows of income and expenditures, they offer a detailed account of the participants' economic lives. The results provide an additional dimension to the current debate over income and wealth inequality. In addition to wide disparities in income and wealth, there are wide disparities in financial security. Many households surveyed experienced financial instability, moving in and out of poverty over the course of a year. Though economic volatility afflicts the poor most severely, even supposedly better-off households increasingly suffer from economic instability. The demise of industrial employment and the erosion of government safety nets have transferred economic risk to households. Unable to match income with expenditures, these households face illiquidity crises even when financially solvent. The authors make those grim facts come to life through case study vignettes. For the most part, the focus is on the small choices of day-to-day budgeting rather than dramatic, life-changing decisions. Though suggestions are offered to improve matters, prospects for change aren't encouraging. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Roger S. Hewett, Drake University

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: A Hidden Inequality	p. 1
Worlds of Uncertainty
Chapter 1 Earning	p. 21
Chapter 2 Spending	p. 47
Chapter 3 Smoothing and Spiking	p. 65
How Families Cope
Chapter 4 Saving	p. 87
Chapter 5 Borrowing	p. 110
Chapter 6 Sharing	p. 130
New Ways of Seeing
Chapter 7 Sometimes Poor	p. 151
Chapter 8 Secure and in Control	p. 168
Notes	p. 179
Bibliography	p. 203
Index	p. 225

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Choice Review

Table of Contents