Journal Article
Thrivers and Strugglers: A Growing Economic Divide
Boshara, Ray (2015-01)
Ray Boshara, director of the Center for Household Financial Stability at the St. Louis Fed, discusses research from the center suggesting that age/birth year, education and race/ethnicity increasingly matter for building wealth and financial security.
Bridges , Issue Winter

Journal Article
Understanding Banking from the Ground Up
Boshara, Ray (2017-10)
Thoughts on banking, the unbanked and financial health after an event featuring Lisa Servon, author of The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives.
Bridges , Issue Fall

Journal Article
Thinking Big—And Thinking Small
Boshara, Ray (2017-07)
Modest but scalable innovations can reshape economic opportunity for struggling Americans.
Bridges , Issue Summer

Journal Article
Thanks, Dad: You Were Right about Saving and Paying Off Debt
Boshara, Ray (2018-04)
Ray Boshara shares a lesson his father taught him about always having cash to fall back on. Recent research shows that his dad was right.
Bridges , Issue Spring

10 Years of Accomplishments: A Final Reflection on the Center for Household Financial Stability
Boshara, Ray (2021-02-09)
Ray Boshara reflects on the Center’s work as it readies for its next chapter at the St. Louis Fed.
On the Economy

Journal Article
The Challenges and Promises of Rural America
Boshara, Ray (2019-07)
A trip to a rural Minnesota town prompts an assessment of the issues?and innovations?that impact similar communities across the nation.
Bridges , Issue Summer

Journal Article
Asset Diversification and Low Debt Are the Keys to Building and Maintaining Wealth
Boshara, Ray; Emmons, William R. (2014-01)
Greatly expanded access to home mortgages during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s appeared to make the American dream a reality for millions of families. Homeownership was attainable by many who, for the first time, were able to take out a mortgage with an extremely low or no down payment ? even if they had a blemished credit history or none at all. For those with access to their accumulated home equity through mortgage refinancing or other home-secured borrowing, as well as to other sources of credit, lack of available cash no longer meant that they had to delay making routine purchases, buying a ...
Cascade , Volume 1

Journal Article
Does College Level the Playing Field?
Boshara, Ray (2017)
Whether the topic is responding to poverty and inequality or expanding access to opportunity and the American Dream, college is always the central recommendation. Yet research found that a college degree predicted rising levels of family wealth for Whites and Asians but declining levels of wealth for Black and Hispanics. The commissioned papers and discussion here are aimed at understanding the underlying explanations of this troubling finding.
Review , Volume 99 , Issue 1 , Pages 1-5

Periodic Essay
Which Families Are Most Vulnerable to an Income Shock such as COVID-19?
Boshara, Ray; Ricketts, Lowell R. (2020-05-01)
Families without enough "safe" assets and too much debt are at risk—who else should policymakers and others target for economic assistance?
In the Balance

Periodic Essay
The Demographics of Wealth - How Age, Education and Race Separate Thrivers from Strugglers in Today's Economy. Essay No. 3: Age, Birth Year and Wealth
Noeth, Bryan J.; Boshara, Ray; Emmons, William R. (2016)
Although there may be downsides to old age, those 62 and older can take heart in knowing that the odds are in favor of their being wealthier than younger people. And the gap has widened considerably over the past quarter-century?in favor of old people. That said, being old isn?t what it used to be. Baby boomers, who are now retiring in droves, are likely to be less well-off than their ?old? counterparts in the two previous generations. And it looks as if members of the next two generations ? Generation X and Generation Y (the millennials) ? might also end up less wealthy than the generation ...
Demographics of Wealth , Issue 3 , Pages 1-28