The Financial Diaries : How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty / Jonathan Morduch, Rachel Schneider.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morduch, Jonathan, author.

Schneider, Rachel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poor families.

Middle class families.

Financial security.

Finance, Personal.

Economic history.

Personal finance.

Families--Finance, Personal.

Middle class families--United States.

Poor families--United States.

Financial security--United States.

Finance, Personal--United States.

United States.

United States--Economic conditions--21st century.

Local Subjects:

Personal finance.

Families--Finance, Personal.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (234 pages) : illustrations, photographs

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. A Hidden Inequality

Worlds of Uncertainty

Chapter 1. Earning

Chapter 2. Spending

Chapter 3. Smoothing and Spiking

How Families Cope

Chapter 4. Saving

Chapter 5. Borrowing

Chapter 6. Sharing

New Ways of Seeing

Chapter 7. Sometimes Poor

Chapter 8. Secure and in Control

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-223) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691183145

0691183147

OCLC:

1132654229