The Aspen Institute Financial Security Program convenes the Consumer Insights Collaborative, an effort across nine leading nonprofits (including Commonwealth) to collectively understand and amplify data for the public good, specifically about the financial lives of low- to moderate-income households. The Collaborative’s vision is that data-driven insights will prompt a wide variety of actors to develop programs, products, and policies that help more people achieve financial security—and that the insights inspire more organizations to put their data to use for good.

Financial security opens doors and protects against the unexpected. It allows people to freely pursue the lives they want today and in the future. Yet Americans are finding it increasingly hard to be financially secure or economically mobile. This report shines a light on the central role that short-term financial stability plays in a person’s ability to reach broader financial security and well-being, and eventually, become upwardly mobile.