Portfolios of the poor : How the world's poor live on $2 a day

About 40% of the world's people live on an income of two dollars a day or less - a widely recognised benchmark for defining the world's poor.

How do they put food on the table, afford a home, educate their children?

How do they handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world find a way to answer these questions.

Portfolios of the poor is the title to explain systematically how the poor solve the problem of survival.

The authors report on the year-long 'financial diaries' of villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India and South Africa (in Johannesburg, Cape Town and rural Eastern Cape), records that track cent by cent how specific households manage their money - including finding the funds for vastly expensive funerals.

The stories of these families are often surprising and inspiring.

Most poor households do not live hand to mouth, spending what they earn in a desperate bid to keep afloat.

Instead, they employ financial tools, many linked to informal networks and family ties. They push money into savings for reserves, squeeze money out of creditors whenever possible, run sophisticated savings clubs, and use microfinancing wherever available.

Their experiences reveal new methods to fight poverty and ways to envision the next generation of banks for the 'bottom billion'.

This title is indispensable for those in development studies, economics, banking and microfinance.

But Portfolios of the Poor has been written in a very accessible style and will appeal to anyone interested in how the poor survive.