The book

By the close of the 20th century Rutherford had built up a large collection of records from his interviews with poor people about managing money. Some of the most interesting interviews had been done in India, financed by DFID (British aid), in the company of Sukhwinder Singh Arora. With Sukhwinder`s encouragement, Rutherford wrote The Poor and Their Money as a summary of what he had found and to illustrate the many fascinating ways in which poor people handle their money.

The book was updated and republished in summer 2009.

The book has six chapters:

Chapter 1: The Need to Save - Why people who have so little money need to mange it carefully, and why saving is at the root of their efforts

Chapter 2: Three Ways to Save - Saving up, saving down, and saving through

Chapter 3: Informal devices: ROSCAs and ASCAs -How the poor run savings clubs

Chapter 4: Informal services: Managers and Providers - About the services that the poor can buy in the informal market

Chapter 5: Welcoming new partners - About the new organizations that have sprung up recently to help the poor get better financial services

Chapter 6: Financial lives - Another way of looking at how the poor use financial services, and some concluding remarks