About the Book
Financial struggles of American families are headline news. In communities across the nation, families feel the pinch of stagnant and sometimes declining incomes. Many have not recovered from the Great Recession, when millions lost their homes and retirement savings. They are bombarded daily with vexing financial decisions: Which bills to pay? Where to cash checks? How to cover an emergency? How to improve a credit report? How to bank online? How to save for the future?
Low- and moderate-income families have few places to turn for guidance on financial matters. Not many can afford to pay a financial advisor to help navigate an increasingly complex financial world. They do their best with advice from family and trusted individuals.
Social workers, financial counselors, and human services professionals can help. As "first responders," they assist families and help in finding financial support from public and private sources. But these professionals are too often unprepared to address the full range of financial troubles of ordinary working families.
Financial Capability and Asset Building in Vulnerable Households is the first book of its kind. It prepares social workers, financial counselors, and other human service professionals for financial practice with vulnerable families. Building on more than 20 years of research, the book sets the stage with key concepts, historical antecedents, and current financial challenges of families in America. The book provides knowledge and tools to assist families in pressing financial circumstances. It offers a lifespan perspective of financial capability and environmental influences on financial behaviors and actions. This important text details practice principles and skills for direct interventions, as well as for designing financial services and policy innovations. This is an essential text for preparing the next generation of practitioners who can enable families to achieve economic security and development.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Setting the Stage: Financial Capability and Asset Building in Financially Vulnerable Households
Chapter 1: Financial Well-Being: Basic Concepts
Chapter 2: Financial Vulnerability in American Families: A Portrait
Chapter 3: History of Financial Capability and Asset Building in America
Chapter 4: Financial Institutions, Products, and Services
Chapter 5: Understanding Household Finance: Income Statements and Balance Sheets
Part II: Household Finance: Building a Foundation for Financial Capability and Asset Building
Chapter 6: Household Income
Chapter 7: Taxes and Financially Vulnerable Households
Chapter 8: Values, Goals, and Spending Plans
Chapter 9: Short-Term and Emergency Savings
Chapter 10: Long-Term Savings and Asset Accumulation: Building a Future
Chapter 11: Credit and Credit Building
Chapter 12: Higher Education
Chapter 13: Housing and Homeownership
Chapter 14: Debt, Problem Debt, and Debt Negotiation
Chapter 15: Risk Management and Insurance
Chapter 16: Identity Theft and Protection
Chapter 17: Collections, Garnishments, and Bankruptcy
Chapter 18: Preparing for Financial Security in Old Age
Chapter 19: Putting Financial Affairs in Order: Estate Planning
Part III: Human Services: Financial Capability and Asset-Building Practice
Chapter 20: Financial Capability in the Social Environment: Preparing for Financial Capability and Asset-Building Practice
Chapter 21: Financial Practice with Individuals and Families
Chapter 22: Financial Capability and Asset Building in Organizations, Communities, and Policy
Chapter 23: Career Pathways in Financial Capability and Asset-Building Practice
Glossary
Index
About the Author :
Margaret S. Sherraden, PhD, MA, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Research Professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Julie Birkenmaier, PhD, MSW, LCSW, is a Professor at Saint Louis University School of Social Work and a Project Co-Director of Financial Capability with the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St Louis.
J. Michael Collins, PhD, MA, MPP, is Associate Professor of Public Affairs and Consumer Finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Human Ecology and La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Review :
"The book takes a uniquely valuable approach by which financial issues are described from the perspective of those who experience financial struggles and those who are trying to assist them based on principles from the humanservice professions, such as a strengths perspective, a nonjudgmental attitude, cultural competence, humility, and respect for client self-determination." -- Journal of Teaching in Social Work
Rather than just help individuals balance their budget, Financial Capability and Asset Building in Vulnerable Households importantly encourages human service workers to engage in financial practice with low-income families based on the relationship between individuals and their environment. Packed with new and extremely valuable information about financial capability and asset building, the authors reject the standard victim-blaming narrative. Instead, they
rightly argue that family financial well-being is not possible without public policies that support many financial opportunities. The solid 'practice wisdom' threaded throughout this readable new book,
applied to diverse populations, effectively locates 'financial capability' and 'assets' in their theoretical social, environmental, and historical contexts. Social workers are urged to undo decades of asset-stripping policies that begot today's disturbing asset or wealth inequality."
- Mimi Abramovitz, Hunter College, CUNY
Financial Capability and Asset Building is a unique, comprehensive resource for front-line professionals and policymakers. Sherraden, Birkenmaier, and Collins compellingly convey how the financial lives of many low-income families of color in the U.S. are undermined by financial volatility, fewer assets, predatory lenders, and less financial know-how. Chapters combine data analysis, historical background, and powerful conceptual frameworks, defining terms like
financial capability, explaining budgets and debt, and prompting further practical reflection and application. Challenges and solutions are discussed in the context of the financial decisions facing
real families. This timely book fills a big gap."
- Robert Giloth, Vice President, Center for Economic Opportunity, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
This is a wonderful book for those who aspire to translate knowledge about financial capacity building into action for vulnerable populations. The themes are derived from a tested and validated curriculum and will be a great resource for educators, social workers, and other practitioners. The span of issues covered is impressive and the organization of the book allows for targeted information about specific topics. The overview of the broad policy debates
combined with the qualitative narratives is a distinct strength."
- Alan Mathios, Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University
Skillfully integrating theory and practice, this seminal book offers clear concepts, real life examples, and key resources centered on struggling families and their financial needs and opportunities throughout the life course. The breadth of topics is impressive, including income, taxes, spending, saving, budgeting, credit and credit building, risk management and insurance, college, homeownership, and financial security and estate planning in old age. They also
enable practitioners to engage with policymakers to help create more enabling policy environments for vulnerable families. I'm only sorry it took until the publication of this critical book to revive
the sound Progressive Era idea that the helping professions, at their core, must also be about financial capability."
- Ray Boshara, Senior Fellow, Financial Security Program, The Aspen Institute; Founding Director, Asset Building Program, New America; co-author, The Next Progressive Era
Empirical studies have established a strong, inverse relationship between a household's financial resources and its ability to use those resources in a self-beneficial manner. Vulnerable households are thus doubly disadvantaged and in need of strategic financial advice from appropriately trained practitioners, primarily social workers. This is the first textbook specifically designed to meet that need."
- Lewis Mandell, Professor Emeritus of Finance and Managerial Economics, State University of New York at Buffalo
