Last year , America ’s interior poorness ratedippedfrom 14.8 to 13.5 percent , butForbesprovides a sobering reminderthat the nation ’s post - recession economic recovery only plays a modest office in determining our financial future tense . Experts say that raceway , marriage status , education storey , and gender all contribute to our likeliness of ending up in poverty — even if we ’re making end meet with our current incomes .
To foretell whether you ’ll sink below the federal poverty business line in the next five , 10 , or 15 days , Cornell University sociologist Thomas Hirschl and his colleagues used data from longitudinal study to create a free online tool called thePoverty Risk Calculator . Simply enter in your demographic entropy , and it inform you of your chance of get through near - impoverishment , impoverishment , and extreme property . ( As of 2015 , the Union poverty business for a family of four was an income of $ 24,000 . )
Curious how people from other walks of animation fare ? you’re able to alter the figurer ’s variables and liken up to five risk profiles . For example , if you ’re a lily-white , unmarried female person in your mid-20s with some college instruction , your probability of reaching poverty in the next five yr is around 14 percent . But if you get married , it drops by more than half . Meanwhile , a non - ashen , married male in his early - to - mid-40s with no college breeding has a most 30 percent risk for the same prison term couplet . Add some college , and his chances plummet to around 11 percent .
In all , Hirschl says , most 40 percent of all Americans between age 25 historic period 60 will send packing below the impoverishment billet for one or more years . He hop-skip his Poverty Risk Calculator will further consciousness of the phenomeon — and that even people who are n’t too disquieted about money will keep its finding in mind while making financial decisions for their future .
[ h / tForbes ]
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