I have an in-law (actually more than one) who is on Social Security - because of an addiction. Every few months he gets "his" SSI check and cracks out. He then sells everything in my sister in law (also a life long social leach - on methadone, smoking after taxpayer lung cancer surgery) owns for a continued high. Then straightens out long enough to come for dinner, drinks and banter. Oh - and he has plenty of political insight of course.

Low-Income New Yorkers Have Little In Savings...

...in the bank. All the low-income women I've ever known have kept their money in their bra (and that includes my aunt).

Maybe you should lay off the pot, potsmoker, because you sound like a moron.

poor people are buying $300 sneakers,

no really, encouraging savings is not the answer.

saving $25 a week out of a $240 paycheck will get you out of the projects in 18 years...ghetto math doesnt account for how you compund interest over 20 years when your immediate needs for comfort, security, and sustenance are hard to find. ghetto math is paying for single rides because buying an inlimited metrocard cost more $ NOW instead of saving money in the long run.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051702053.html

http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2006/0723california_fellowes.aspx

i once worked with a real stuck up boss whore bag married for money sack of crap that hated the fact that every two weeks i look about 15 minutes to deposit my paycheck in the bank across the street, she explained that she usually waits a few months to deposit all her checks at the same time to save time and improve productivity....i was like....ahhh yeah ok right on...

Great article from WaPo. It shows how people stay in the hole. You can watch people on the first of the month walk right past banks to go to these nonsense check cashing places (where the lines are longer too).

There needs to be way more emphasis put on financial literacy in school because these parents can't/won't.

yeah, that and I could be dead tomorrow.

This is an outrage?

WTF are the poor doing with all their money!

They should be saving it!

Next up: WATER IS WET.

Low income people will always have little or no savings. The key is to get out of the low income group and not how to get poor people to save.

People move in and out of low incomes all the time.

Well, thank goodness for the good folks at Goldman who are doing their share of propping up the market - even though they ARE the market...

i love these things.

i remember when i complained that i only got a 3% raise, my boss threw back that he only got a 2% raise.

i explained the percentage comparison is irrelevant, since 2% of 180K is more than 3% of 38K.

ill give it to you simple, why do people in ghettos walk in front for your car, because the settlement is always more than one years salary. then walking through the hood with a cane is always cool if you add some bling.

why save $1000 just in case, when playing $2,

718 dolla strate/dolla box will get you $580, aiight.

i cant buy a pack of smokes without waiting for some ghetto lowlife playing $140 in Numbers.

i try to explain why buy $100 worth of different numbers,

when only one will win 1 out of 1000, garanteeing 99 loosing tickets. wouldnt it be better to play 50 straight and 50 box,

getting $25000 (500x50) + $4000 (80x50)

we both have the same odds of winning except you get $500 for $1 straight and I get $25000 for $50 straight.

but we both have the same odds of loosing you get 100 loosing tickets and i get 100 loosing tickets.

ghetto math is never logical.

what is with this ghetto prejudice shit?

Well, there is something to fall back on, which is the most liberal dispensation of social services and welfare aid in the country. But really, we needed a 'study' for this? Next up: "Low Income Earners Rarely Eat At Babbo," "Bus Ridership Skewed to Lower Income Earners" and "Study Finds Correlation Between Crime and Poverty."

Wow!

Next thing you know, they'll say the crime rate is higher in East NY than on the UES.

:o

File this under "Clay Aiken Comes Out of the Closet."

Jen you forgot the subhead:

Low-Income New Yorkers Have Little In Savings: but man do they know how to dance!

I'd recommend a balanced portfolio of "mugger money", crumpled bills in a Campbell's Soup can, and a change jar that's at least 20% quarters.

Tell this to politicians. All they know how to do is create new taxes and keep raising them. What do you get in return for new taxes? better service, nah? More like more wasteful spending and corruption.

File this one under "duh."

How many people are poor because of their own stupidity, ie, dropping out of school, not bothering to obtain any marketable skills, gambling, drugs, booze, waiting for the government to solve all their problems etc... Just because you're a loser doesn't make it somebody else's fault.

Probably not as many as you think. I know many people who have done the right thing all their lives and have gotten a good education and have worked hard to take care of their families and are still scraping to get by.

I agree, but unfortunately, the ranks of the lazy and entitled have grown enormously in the last few decades. They make it difficult for the genuinely needy.