The Financial Diaries

"The Financial Diaries succeeds in that rarest of goals: making you think and care at the same time. This is an invaluable look at the profound economic uncertainties of our era."--Jacob S. Hacker, author of The Great Risk Shift"The Financial Diaries provides a voice for the millions of Americans struggling to take control of their financial lives. Morduch and Schneider's vivid assessment of the causes and consequences of financial instability for the hard-working families in neighborhoods across the nation challenges all of us to do our part to address this widespread problem."--Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal"Morduch and Schneider significantly advance our understanding of financial insecurity and intermittent poverty by showing how these stem from monthly and annual volatility in both income and spending--and not just low incomes. Employers, financial institutions, and policymakers should read this book and help American families better save, borrow, spend, and plan for their financial future."--Sarah Rosen Wartell, President, Urban Institute"This powerful book should change the way we think about economic opportunity in America. Two of the nation's leading experts on consumer finance show how widespread and destructive economic instability has become, reaching from factory and fast-food workers into the ranks of the middle class. Rising costs and unsteady income not only strain families' efforts to meet basic needs--and generate a heavy reliance on self-defeating coping strategies--but challenge their faith in the American Dream. This book is an urgent wake-up call, and a roadmap for equally urgent reform."--Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation"The Financial Diaries is an invaluable framework to understand why working-class families feel uneasy with their financial situations. It makes an important case for the distinction between illiquidity and insolvency, and why policy solutions for each may not be the same."--Elisabeth Jacobs, Washington Center for Equitable Growth