Savings

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) hosted an event today to release “Latino Financial Access and Inclusion," a new report that examines the relationship between comprehensive immigration reform and household financial stability for U.S. Latinos. At the event, experts from NCLR, Citi, the American Bankers Association, and a Chicago-based organization, The Resurrection Project, explored the report's findings on financial inclusion within the Latino immigrant community. The report analyzes data from a survey of roughly 1,000 low-income Latino-identified individuals across California during 2012.

Janet Murguía, President of NCLR, began the event by discussing the historical exclusion Latino immigrants have faced in the mainstream financial services marketplace. Despite myriad barriers to accessing financial services and some significant economic challenges, this report found that Latino consumers were actively prioritizing saving, utilizing a range of financial products to meet their needs, and displaying savvy engagement with financial service providers.

The report also builds the case for comprehensive immigration reform and ensuring a path to citizenship by demonstrating the variance in financial stability and engagement by citizenship status. For example, among immigrants who had been in the U.S. the same amount of time, naturalized citizens were more likely to be engaged in the mainstream financial services sector than their non-citizen counterparts. As Murguía put it, U.S. citizenship opens the doors to not only better job opportunities and education, but also greater financial inclusion. When combined, these resources create a path to upward economic and social mobility. Thus, the report explicitly frames citizenship status as an asset and calls for the current immigration reform conversation to better reflect the economic needs and opportunities of the Latino immigrant community.

Americans have rebuilt only 45 percent of the wealth they lost in the Great Recession, according to the Washington Post and a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

That's the title and subject of a new report from the Heritage Foundation, written by Stuart Butler, David John, and Sean Rust. The report takes a look at the status of savings in the US, impediments to savings, the international track record of prize-linked savings programs (where in addition to or in place of interest, savers earn the opportunity for prizes, mostly cash) and the possibilities of and obstacles to such a program in the US.

"An Assets Agenda for the States" examines current state asset building efforts with an eye toward examining those policies and priorities that are emerging as trends in this challenging economic environment. This appendix serves as a resource accompanying the paper, which can be viewed here.

Editor's note: this blog post was authored by Ambika Panday, Assistant Director of Policy & Advocacy at The Financial Clinic, and is adapted from an article that appeared originally in the Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, March-April 2013 (pp. 492-508).

Chronic illness, poor health, and inadequate health insurance are three major obstacles keeping low and moderate-income families from building their financial security.  While it is unclear whether poor health begets financial insecurity or vice versa, the correlation between the lack of health insurance (and poor health) and poverty is unmistakable.

Editor's note: This blog post was authored by Courtney Eccles, Policy Director at the Woodstock Institute, and originally appeared on Woodstock's blog. Read more about the issue of asset limits on our blog here.

A bill that removes the asset limit for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients in Illinois, making it easier for them to build savings, has passed both chambers of the General Assembly and is on its way to the Governor’s desk. HB2262, sponsored by Rep. Robyn Gabel and Sen. Mattie Hunter, passed the Illinois House last month and passed the Illinois Senate on May 21 with bi-partisan support. Woodstock Institute and colleague organizations advocated in favor of the bill.

Editor's Note: This blog post is written by Matt Unrath, Director of National Projects at Wider Opportunities for Women. Matt oversees WOW’s national projects—The Family Economic Security Project, the Basic Economic Security Tables™ Initiative (BEST), the Women and Work project and the Economic Security for Survivors project. He serves as the principal contact for WOW’s state and local partners across the country and represents WOW in national advocacy efforts.

Editor's note: this post appears as an op-ed in today's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. It is authored by Judy Darnell, Director of Public Policy at United Ways of California, and Aleta Sprague, Policy Analyst at New America Foundation.

After Melissa’s parents kicked her out at age 15, she survived on her own for years. She eventually married and had children, but her husband was abusive. Melissa left him after he broke her 2-year-old’s leg. She needed help to pick herself up. So what stopped her from getting it? Her 8-year-old van.

Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and a “hard work” ethic are the hallmarks of America’s definition of success. To achieve success and the economic mobility of the American Dream, however, requires not only the ability to generate income, but also the ability to translate such income into assets. While income may measure whether or not a person has enough to get by, assets measure whether or not a person has enough to get ahead.