Research has found that low-income individuals can and do save when institutional supports are in place; however, little structured data are available on how and why they manage to save. This article presents a study of the long-term savings experiences of 9 low-income African American women who were participating in an Individual Development Account (IDA) savings program in a city in North Carolina. The results indicated that despite many markers of disadvantage, low-income African American women use various strategies to save money for developing their assets. These findings can inform policy, practice, and research by increasing knowledge of facilitators of and barriers to the development of assets among the poor.
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