This seems like something someone might have done once, and if anyone’s done it, it seems like the kind of thing some doper would have heard about.
I wonder whether, as a pure stunt or to make a point or for experimental purposes or whatever, anyone has ever gotten some kind of experienced and successful manager of money to take care of a poverty stricken household’s finances for some long stretch of time. To see what if anything they can accomplish.
This ever happen?
Who is paying the manager and how much time are they spending on the household’s finances? I’d guess that even an hour of a good manager’s time might be beyond the means of someone who can’t even make rent.
There were a few shows like that. One was Til Debt Do Us Part which had an experienced money manager work with people to get their financial houses in order. I believe the experiment lasted six months.
Wow a reality show that would actually help a lot of viewers. “Extreme Makover: Budget Edition” Paging Suze Orman.
Frankly, I find the implication that, in general, people are poor because they are bad at “managing” their money to be quite offensive. It is a particularly pernicious form of victim blaming. With very few exceptions, people are poor simply because they do not have enough money, because their earnings are too low, and no amount of “managing” is going to fix that. They have no spare money to invest, and ways of saving money (beyond what they probably already do) generally involve an investment of time and energy that working poor almost never have available.
Indeed, I very much suspect that most professional “money managers” have so little idea about how poor people have to live, that (unless they have to good sense to realize that there is essentially nothing they can or should do) any interventions that they might make would be likely to quickly make a bad situation worse.
Her is a better idea. Give the poor people the money you would have to pay the money manager, and let them manage it themselves. Then they won’t be poor.
Are you sure? How much do you think the average financial advisor makes from a single client? And what does any of your righteous indignation have to do with answering the question in the OP?
Till Debt Do Us Part can be found occasionally on CNBC in the States. There’s also an interesting (or exploitative, depending on how you look at it) HBO documentary called Reversal of Fortune. They give a homeless guy $100,000 and follow him to see what he does with it. A financial advisor gives him some excellent advice.
Based on the Wikipedia description of the show and this Financial Post article, it sounds like the families involved were middle class but with poor spending habits. That’s very different from what the OP is asking.
Obviously either no one or a third party.
Of course the experiment I described in the OP was meant to test this implication, not simply to confirm or assume it.
I don’t think so. Are people poor because of circumstance or because of culture? If you lack the ability and skill to properly manage money, it doesn’t matter how much money you give to them. They will still fritter it away. Just look at the number of poor who play the lottery, and win. It’s not long after they often lose all that money and are back to where they were.
Yes and no. This book details the lives of the welfare class/working poor. It is a combination of not having money and not knowing how to manage it. The talked about a situation where one of the families receives a legal settlement for an injury and they piss the money away. When questioned about it, they thought they did the right thing buying nice clothes and “treating” themselves.
There was a section on one single mother working and her expenses vs. income. She was barely making it and wasn’t wasting money. It’s just really hard to support kids and a household on one low-income. She had been on welfare previously and gone through a program to get her off benefits. The program offered money management courses, which she took advantage of. When she did get extra money, she sent it to her husband in jail.
Right as right can be. These are two different populations. One group can benefit by being told that the daily Starbucks latte cost $1,100 per year take home. The other is trying to come up with meals that can be prepared on a hot plate in an single room occupancy hotel because they don’t have any chance of coming up with the $2,000 in deposits and rent it would take to get into an apartment.
There are defined poverty levels in the US, based on family size and income. It isn’t true that everyone living below the poverty line resides in a one bedroom hotel equipped with a hot plate.
I’ve seen a few episodes where the parties involved are unemployed or underemployed (i.e. their financial problems weren’t solely a matter of overspending). Maybe not “poverty-stricken”, though; that’s a pretty vague term.
I find it offensive that you’re getting butthurt in a GQ thread after failing to read the OP. He asked if a money manager could possibly help some poverty stricken families. He did not imply that all such families are poor because they are bad at managing money.
It’s also worth noting that the skills you need to survive on rock-bottom-poor income are really different than the skills you need to survive on a small income. People often do not transition well from one to the other.
In all cases the people are broke, not poor. I’ve never seen one episode where over-spending wasn’t the problem. It’s kind of the reason for the show.
If they were unemployed or underemployed it was their own fault, as they had no trouble finding work once the host kicked their asses.
One couple didn’t have the money to buy milk for their child. Seems like ‘poor’ by anyone’s definition. But the week before they had spent $1,500 on landscaping their front yard.
I’d probably agree with you, if I knew what the difference between “broke” and “poor” was.
There was a TV show in India, where finance professionals advise debt-ridden couples. They were not exactly poor, but financially illiterate.
Will try to post a link later.
This is getting out of GQ territory, but FWIW:
5 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Poor
The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor
Yes, it Cracked.com, a humor site, and the author admits it was his own fault for the situation he was in. But he does point out things about being poor that many may not realize.
I have been poor/low income all my life (I’m 50). Some of that was because of poor (heh) decisions on my part, but I never made BAD decisions IMO. Never did drugs, alcohol, gamble*, or hookers & blow.
I have no idea how to manage a huge sum of money or even who to go to if I came into some.
Currently I’m on disability of $874 a month ($60 less than 3 years ago) 55% goes to rent and I will likely get a rent increase this summer. I’m not sure what a money manager could do for me.
What you said is true, the irony is that I do live in a SRO, but I have a microwave instead of a hot plate (though I’m not allowed to have either).
*I have bought lottery tickets from time to time.