Financial Resilience Project
COVID Stories, Rapid Insights
Commonwealth’s Financial Resilience Project: COVID Stories, Rapid Insights closely tracks the financial lives of low- and moderate-income households over the course of several months. In June 2020, we began closely following 56 households from across the U.S. with a median annual income of $50,500 to understand how financially vulnerable people are navigating the crisis.
We speak with these households every other week to better understand their financial resiliency strategies: how people are earning money, paying bills, using emergency savings, and managing debt. We are particularly interested in the central role of savings—both what people accumulated before the crisis as well as the opportunities to save during the crisis. Our unique research approach offers an intimate look at resiliency in action and provides near real-time insights on financial resilience.
Our webinar Financial Resiliency Strategies: New Research on How Lower Income Households Are Weathering COVID featuring Melissa Gopnik, Senior Vice President at Commonwealth, Dr. Daryl Collins, co-author of Portfolios of the Poor,and Jose Miranda Jr., Director of Economic Justice at Chhaya, focused on household financial volatility, the role of savings, and financial strategies households are using to manage this crisis. Panelists connected the findings to actions employers, financial institutions, fintechs, and policy makers can take to support low-and moderate-income households both during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
COVID Stories
These are the stories of three individuals who we have been following through our research. Over the course of several months, we learn how their lives have changed as a result of the pandemic’s disruption and economic recession. We also learn how their financial resiliency strategies are working—or not working—in this uncertain time.
Amy
A 29-year-old white woman who lives in New Jersey with her partner. Before COVID, she worked as a retail buyer for a boutique, while her partner worked construction. Since March, both have lost their jobs and seen extreme ups and down in their income. Since receiving unemployment benefits, Amy has been able to pay her bills and save to prepare for what comes next. She is currently looking for work and trying to start her own business.
Courtney
A 39-year-old Black woman who lives in Rhode Island with her daughter. Courtney works as a teacher and a significant portion of her income comes from her work in year-round after school programs. However, since these programs have been cancelled due to COVID, she can no longer rely on this income. Courtney’s ability to look for other work is made more difficult by the fact that she can’t leave her daughter alone, so any job she finds needs to be fairly flexible to accommodate this.
Joshua
A 38-year-old Black father of one who lives alone in Georgia. Before COVID, he worked full-time refurbishing and remodeling retail stores across the country, relishing the travel required for his work. After the pandemic, Joshua lost this job, gained another, then lost that job too. He’s now on unemployment, which has provided some stability. Though he’s never been a saver, he is now eager to set money aside so he’s ready for whatever challenges come next.
