This is what @LenoirForMayor espouses. He said in the Rotary Club debate that it doesn’t matter how much you make, it matters how you spend it. And he doesn’t miss a chance to talk about the financial literacy classes his (trustee) office promotes.
A popular nonprofit pairs people making minimum wage with middle/upper-middle class residents for this financial literacy curriculum.
I held my tongue as they told the participants to save 10% of their income.
I held my tongue as they told the participants to save 10% of their income.
Imagjne telling someone who makes $7.25/hour (TN minimum wage) and someone who makes $75,000 that to be financially responsible, they must save 10% of their income.
It’s laughable, but that’s what passes for faith-based social services in the poorest large metro in the nation.
It’s laughable, but that’s what passes for faith-based social services in the poorest large metro in the nation.
Let’s do the math, shall we?
A minimum wage worker who saves $7.25 of her income - assuming that she works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, which isn’t a safe assumption for someone working a low-wage job - will have $1,508 at the end of the year.
A minimum wage worker who saves $7.25 of her income - assuming that she works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, which isn’t a safe assumption for someone working a low-wage job - will have $1,508 at the end of the year.
Someone who makes $75K a year will have $7,500 at the end of the year by saving that same 10%.
Assume they both invest with a 6% rate of return and annual contribution of that 10%.
One will have just under $24K in two years and the other will have just over $118K.
Assume they both invest with a 6% rate of return and annual contribution of that 10%.
One will have just under $24K in two years and the other will have just over $118K.
There’s nothing wrong with learning how to save. Most Americans - including the middle class - have virtually NO savings.
There IS something perverse about preaching financial literacy as the solution to poverty to people who are broke.
There IS something perverse about preaching financial literacy as the solution to poverty to people who are broke.
When the question is about poverty and I hear folks talk about financial literacy and not the profits that the rich make by refusing to pay their workers enough to live on, it makes me angry.
ESPECIALLY when they shout out #MLK in their Twitter bio. 
Cc: @DCLenoir @LenoirForMayor
MLK called for a “radical redistribution of political and economic power.”
Not financial literacy classes.
MLK called for a “radical redistribution of political and economic power.”
Not financial literacy classes.
