tailieunhanh - Banking the Unbanked Helping Low-Income Families Build Financial Assets

The Bank's study of Ecuador from 1970-1994 is the most quoted example of the implications of measuring genuine savings. 9 Extended Domestic Investments (orthodox savings) for this period were consistently more than 20%, peaking at more than 30% in the early 1990s. However, once the drawdown of non-renewable natural capital in the form of oil was accounted for, genuine savings were found to be near zero or negative. Similarly striking results were found for a number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. 10 Genuine savings measures tend to depress the savings rates of natural resource-rich countries, showing. | TheFINANCE PROJECT Strategy Brief Banking the Unbanked Helping Low-Income Families Build Financial Assets By Pamela Friedman Introduction The passage of welfare reform in 1996 has swelled the ranks of the low-income workforce. While many have successfully made the transition to employment the road to self-sufficiency is still very challenging. Assets are critical to enabling poor and low-income families to build the personal and financial resources they need to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency. Although many low-income families strive to save the lack of asset accumulation among the working poor is an issue of growing national concern among policymakers researchers educators and advocates for the low-income. Assets can help insure low-income families against the risk of major life events such as divorce unemployment retirement illness and death or accidents that can cause significant financial hardship. They also enable individuals and families to obtain education and training purchase a home and plan for their children s future. In this way assets help families to not only get ahead but to plan for themselves and pass on opportunities to future generations. Research indicates that significantly more families live in asset poverty than income poverty. Fisher and Weber found the 1998 asset poverty rate in some communities was four times that of the income poverty Hogarth and Anguelov found that 86 percent of poor and low-income households had some financial assets however among households at the poverty level the median value of those assets was only Economic Success for Families Communities September 2005 1Monica G. Fisher and Bruce A. Weber Does Economic Vulnerability Depend on Place of Residence Asset Poverty Across the Rural-Urban Continuum Working Paper No. 04-01 Columbia MO Rural Poverty Research Center March 2004 . The authors define asset poverty as insufficient resources to sustain household members at a basic level during times of .