Portfolios of the Poor
Portfolios of the Poor is built on financial diaries, detailed records the authors kept of how roughly 250 poor households in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa managed money over a year. The book shows that people living on two dollars a day or less do not simply spend what little they have. They borrow, save, lend, and use a wide mix of formal and informal tools to cope with irregular income and emergencies. The authors argue that the poor need reliable financial services as much as more income, and they examine what microfinance does and does not deliver. Combining close case studies with broader analysis, the book reshaped how economists and development practitioners think about poverty, cash flow, and the financial lives of low income families.
What you might want to know about Portfolios of the Poor
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Researchers track the daily finances of poor households to show how people living on very little manage money.
They are detailed records the authors kept of every transaction in poor households over about a year, tracking how the families managed money.
It was written by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven.
Portfolios of the Poor is 296 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Portfolios of the Poor takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Portfolios of the Poor is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
