What happens when you have no savings and you suddenly incur a huge expense like a medical bill or car repair. What happens if you have a job in retail and your weekly paycheck fluctuates while your monthly bills remain steady. The topic today is financial fragility and to explore I’ve invited Rachel Schneider, the co-author of the new book, The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty. In her book she and her co-author take a deep dive into how 235 low and middle-income families in the U.S. spend, earn and save over the course of a year. How do they deal with inconsistent paychecks, emergency costs and other financial ups and downs?
Some more about Rachel: She’s the Senior Vice President at Center for Financial Services Innovation or CFSI. She’s an expert on financial health and how an innovative financial services marketplace can improve the live for Americans. She is also the co-Principal Investigator on the U.S. Financial Diaries research study that is the basis of her new book. Rachel’s began her career as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.
In our conversation we discuss:
- The forces leading to income volatility and financial fragility.
- How a household earning six-figures still has money troubles.
- Ways households are overcoming financial fragility on their own.
- New technologies are coming through the pipeline to help us get a better handle on money.
If you’d like to learn more about Rachel visit www.usfinancialdiaries.org and cfsinnovation.
