31,342 research outputs found

    Why You Should Charge Your Friends for Borrowing Your Stuff

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    Money Management by Low-Income Households: Earning, Spending, Saving, and Accessing Financial Services

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    Opening and maintaining a checking or savings account at a credit union or bank are crucial steps for establishing the kinds of relationships with financial institutions that lead to qualifying for credit and developing assets. An estimated 22.2 million households or 56 million adults in the U.S. did not have a bank account in 2002. The lack of a bank account is more pervasive among low -income families than higher income families: 83% of families without bank accounts earn less than 25,000peryear.Furthermore,asmanyas2225,000 per year. Furthermore, as many as 22% of low-income families -- more than 8.4 million families earning less than 25,000 -- do not have a checking or savings account. Families in the lowest income group are even less likely to have accounts. An estimated 29.1% of families with incomes in the lowest twentieth percentile (10,300orless)arewithoutaccounts,whichismorethanthreetimesthemedianof9.110,300 or less) are without accounts, which is more than three times the median of 9.1% for all families.Classifying households as either banked or unbanked is conventional in the literature on the use of financial services by low-income households. However, a continuum that encompasses banked, formerly banked, underbanked, marginally banked, aspiring to bank, and unbanked better characterizes the way low-income persons access the broad array of financial services available to them. For example, approximately one -half of those currently without a bank account had one in the past; people may have a bank account and still use alternative financial institutions such as check cashing outlets (CCOs), known as currency exchanges in the Chicago area; and 30% of persons without an account report some kind of ongoing relationship with a bank. In fact, the terms mainstream and fringe or alternative themselves depend on one's perspective. That is, what may be regarded as fringe or alternative in one community might be ordinary and mainstream in another.A bank account can be a vehicle for maintaining and accumulating savings. However, having an account does not ensure that account holders are able to save. For example, although an estimated 78% of families with an annual income less than 25,000 had bank accounts in 2001, 53.4% of this income group reported having saved in the previous year. For households in the lowest income quintile ($10,300 or less), the savings rate is 30.0%. Furthermore, the reasons for saving differ among income levels, with families at lower income levels saving for more immediate expenditures such as rent and holiday gifts, compared with the longer timeframe of savings by higher income groups for future expenditures such as children's education and retirement

    Facing the squeeze 2011: A qualitative study of household finances and access to credit

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    The College Cord (March 1, 1943)

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    Teaching and Professional Fellowship Report 2007-2008 : Make the Numbers Count, Improving students' learning experiences through an analysis of Library and Learning Resources data

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    Feedback on Library and Learning Resources (LLR) services and support at the University of the Arts London (UAL) is received from a very extensive range of sources. However, although a considerable quantity of information is available for analysis, it remains very difficult for LLR staff to extract meaningful data from these numerous sources, which can reveal, in depth, the true, individual student experience of LLR services. LLR is aware that there is a lot that is not known, or is not being asked of our students, about their individual experience, which could prove extremely helpful for effective decision-making and service design and delivery. In particular, LLR is interested in identifying and resolving issues of access and support for students currently studying at UAL who are from under represented groups in higher education. Make the numbers counts has enabled the Fellowship Team to move beyond looking at usage figures, gate counts, numbers of issue and renewal transactions, borrower numbers and percentage satisfaction levels, and to extend and add to our knowledge-base of what students at UAL really think and feel about academic libraries. It has enabled us to explore how individual students make use of the services and support provided by LLR. The qualitative data collected through this project has been compared to existing sources of information and to staff experience and understanding of the issues raised, to see if the findings of our research challenge or correlate with other evidence which relates to LLR use and non-use. The focus of the Fellowship has been to explore the particular experience of students who are the first in their family to go to university and who are currently studying at Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon (CCW) and the London College of Communication. Research has shown that this group of students is important amongst the range of students who are now entering higher education through the expansion of participation in university and tertiary-level study. Talking to first generation students was a key element of the project and the greatest source of learning for the Project Team
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