ABSTRACT
Finance offers a set of tools that can help poor people manage their livelihood better. Budgeting is about defining a basic daily expenditure level that is consistent with income flows, and setting goals for specific larger investments. People generally seek mechanisms that help them make regular savings in amounts and in a frequency they can afford. Segregating savings into separate assets rather than saving in a common savings pool, making the savings purpose more salient. Investments that symbolize family values or that entail social behaviors, which are hard to break. This tends to dilute individual decision-making power by enmeshing individual decisions on family and social considerations. Mobile phones offer a special opportunity for integrating savings, payment and budgeting tools seamlessly for the client. The phone offers a level of immediacy and interactivity that no other kind of banking touch point can deliver. Mobile money systems in operation today tend to take a less extreme investment approach.
