While low income families can save, they have limited disposable income. They are, therefore, unlikely to save as much as their higher-income counterparts, whether in traditional investment vehicles or Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs), even though CSAs are designed to build assets among lower income families.
This report presents evidence on savings outcomes within the context in which families are being asked to save. In order to understand the amount saved and make it a meaningful metric within the CSA field, it’s important to explore the families’ current financial contexts. The cohort examined in this paper are low income, Latino families within Prosperity Kids, most of whom are immigrants, within a CSA conceived and managed by Prosperity Works, a nonprofit organization in New Mexico.
