The Asset Building Program’s Favorites of 2013

The end of the year is traditionally a time for reflection, and everyone, everywhere on earth loves a listicle, so my colleagues and I decided to pull together a look back on the year that was for the Asset Building Program. Below you’ll find links to some of our favorite pieces of the year and the pieces that tiny elves (ok, Google Analytics) tell us were most popular with you, our readers.

Our office is closed from December 24^th until January 2^nd, so we won’t be publishing Asset Building News Week or much of anything else for a while. The good news is, you can satisfy many an asset building urge by checking out these favorites. Also, keep an eye on twitter, we’ll be tweeting links to some of this work and asking our friends in the field to highlight their work using #Assets2013.

Here are our favorites, broken down by issue area, you know, because this is a society and we’re not a pack of wild animals:

Asset Limits:

 
College Savings:

 
Tax Reform:

Retirement Savings:

Housing:

 
And here’s our most popular work of 2013, as chosen by you, our audience.

Top 10 Blog Posts:

1. What Honey Boo Boo’s Family Can Teach America about Smart Saving Behavior
2. How 6 Is Too Many, and 3 Million Is Not Enough: The “Retirement Cap” Myth
3. Guest Post: Equality and Justice for All Families
4. Former Bank of America Employees Report Widespread Abuses Throughout the Loan Modification Process
5. New Issue Brief: The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program
6. CalWORKs’ Car Ban Keeps Families Poor
7. Illinois Senate Votes to Eliminate TANF Asset Limit
8. From Bad to Worse: America’s Racial Wealth Gap
9. Just Who is Middle Class?
10. Putting the Kibosh on Using Credit Checks in Hiring Decisions

Top 5 Policy Papers:

1. The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program
2. Personal Savings and Tax Reform
3. An Assets Agenda for the States
4. State Asset Limit Reforms and Implications for Federal Policy
5. Asset-Oriented Rental Assistance

Top 5 Events:

1. Saving Financial Aid
2. The New Suburban Homeless
3. The Hell of American Day Care
4. Democratizing Wealth
5. In Poverty, Under Surveillance

Thanks for a great year everyone, here’s hoping you and yours have a safe and joyful holiday season, and to all the best in 2014!