This Briefing Note explores the “triple-whammy” of poverty, and addresses how households manage and what can be done to help households cope with their most basic, daily challenges. It further explores this phenomenon through the experiences of three diary households.  This note highlights three distinct problems which poor households face: small incomes, irregular and unpredictable cash flows, and existing financial instruments are unreliable and not suited to erratic cash flow patterns.

This is the first note in the Portfolios of the Poor Briefing Notes series. You can link to the other notes below.

Briefing Note 2: Borrowing to Save
Briefing Note 3: How do the Poor Deal with Risk?
Briefing Note 4: Research Methodologies
Briefing Note 5: Creating Better Portfolios—Core Financial Products for the Poor
Briefing Note 6: Portfolios of Bangladesh’s Poor
Briefing Note 7: Grameen II and Portfolios of the Poor
Briefing Note 8: Understanding Price
Briefing Note 9: Three-Country Analysis

These Briefing Notes were created as part of a toolkit of instructional resources for FAI and MicroSave’s June 8-9 virtual conference Reimagining Microfinance Around the World: Implementing Lessons from Portfolios of the Poor. Co-authors Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, and MicroSave’s Graham A.N. Wright moderated the event and discussed with conference “attendees” how to turn lessons from the financial diaries into real, on-the-ground solutions for economic development. The collection of suggested readings and videos for the conference can be accessed on this page.