Laura Choi of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Kate Griffin of CFED, and Ellen Seidman of Urban Institute recently discussed their forthcoming book, What It’s Worth: Strengthening the Financial Future of Families, Communities and the Nation,on Medium. In discussing the book's themes, the authors also referenced research from USFD that dispels the myth that struggling households mismanage their finances.
Recently, Next City featured an overview of the US Financial Diaries project, outlining some initial findings on income volatility. The piece emphasized how data on volatility in USFD households is also linked to the difficulties many Americans face in budgeting and saving for the long term.
The Washington Post featured research from the US Financial Diaries project in a recent review of smartphone apps and tools designed to help individuals manage their money and build savings.
This past July, the Aspen Initiative on Financial Security held its fourth annual Financial Security Summit. Participants convened for a session titled, “Income Volatility and Economic Shocks.”
A new report from the US Financial Diaries project provides evidence that lower income households are saving up for frequent, short-term emergencies that prevent the growth of long-term savings. Could 401k style auto-enrollment programs help to manage both long- and short-term savings goals?
Recently the AARP blog proposed such an idea, citing research from USFD
Most financial literacy programs are geared toward steady paycheck earners with long-term savings goals. But how can programs assist households that are struggling with volatile incomes and unpredictable expenses?
Recently Mediaplanet included a feature on the findings of the US Financial Diaries project and how they can relate to more effective financial literacy approaches.
The Toronto-based Globe and Mail featured work from the US Financial Diaries on employment and income volatility in a piece on the economic realities of low-wage workers in the sharing economy.
The International Business Times featured USFD data as part of a larger piece on new wireless plans for customers with poor credit history. Earlier this week, launched a new service that allows users with bad credit to sign up for a 2-year contract if they've paid their bills on time for 12 consecutive months.
Today, USFD and Omidyar Network were featured on Techonomy.com. The piece describes the research project and also highlights recent early findings, focusing on income volatility.
Rachel Schneider, senior vice president at the Center for Financial Services Innovation, discusses the finances of low- and moderate-income households with Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton on "Bottom Line."
Today, The Huffington Post quoted USFD principal investigator Rachel Schneider and featured several publications in its exploration of seasonal, low-wage jobs. Rachel emphasized that in additional in lumpy incomes, low-wage workers experience unpredictability in their work schedules.
Today, The New York Times featured research from the U.S. Financial Diaries as well as other sources to explore the issue of income volatility and how it is affecting the financial lives of Americans. The complete article is available here.
Earlier this week, The New York Times published a feature on new initiatives aimed at bringing informal savings groups into the formal financial sector:
While informal lending circles among families, acquaintances, co-workers and neighbors are familiar to hundreds of millions of people all over the globe, they are rarely recognized by mainstream financial institutions.
Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, one of the nation’s leading center on retirement studies, recently reported on the findings of USFD's work on informal finance. CRR highlighted the various types of informal financial arrangements (money guards, savings groups, saving at home, and interpersonal loans) and dug deeper into the inner workings of savings groups in particular:
Through detailed data collection over the course of a year, USFD reveals hard-to-see aspects of the financial lives of working, one of which is the high level of uncertainty and unpredictability that households face when income flows are irregular...
Earlier this week, both The New York Times and Vox highlighted research from the U.S. Financial Diaries focused on informal finance.
Low-income households often do not have access to formal financial services and operate in the "invisible finance sector," leaving them with no credit history...
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