Budgeting:

A budget is a long-term plan for how much money a person or company will earn and spend, not a record of how money was spent. Budgeting is the process of allocating money or assets.

Decision making:

Defining a choice, acquiring data, and evaluating potential options is the act of decision making.

Budgeting and decision making by low-income earners:

The underprivileged people usually make different decisions from those who are not needy. They are much more inclined to use costly personal loans and play jackpots and lend at exorbitant interest rates periodically. The discussion over the causes of such inequalities has a prolonged and controversial background. The two competing viewpoints are that the underprivileged reasonably adjust to their economic situation and make better judgments possible, or that poverty influences their desires and renders them increasingly susceptible to choosing wrong paths.

This issue has lingered amongst economic experts, with debates about whether the underprivileged are much more restless or lack self-control resulting in generational poverty. Selective attention and inhibitory control are the executive processes most crucial in poverty. Selective attention allows one to focus on one task without being distracted by other tasks or distractions. Succeeding in selective attention activities requires more than just focus; it also requires self-control. It is called inhibitory control.

Some economists believe that poverty, described as “owning less than one believe they require,” impairs cognitive performance, that can result in errors in the decision-making process and myopic behaviour which is defined as behaviour centred on the pursuit of short-term goals and signifies an activity taken in the present lacking consideration for long term implications. There are significant difficulties in experimentally identifying the actual impacts of economic situations on judgement. There may be a converse causality distortion- in which an individual’s investment decisions influence a person’s financial realities- but there could also be random variable traits, such as intellectual function, that muddle the connection between financial situations and decision-making.

The notion that deprivation affects financial limitations and options that are available, which might impact hedonic decisions, further complicates determining the problems of poverty. Often deprived people while weighing trade-offs involving a minor, short-term choices and greater, longer-term gains have little choice except to concentrate on the near run due to the bad economic situations. Deprived people might, for instance, want to use their paycheck to cover a bill, even though the loan amount they borrowed earlier might have a growing interest rate which will push them further into debts in the long haul. Individuals in a lower socio—economic class who believe that they can rely on someone else to leap in and support them if they suffer a massive loss, on the other hand, are much more willing to risk neglecting the instant remedy in pursuit of the broader picture.

People who are part of thriving communities are much less worried if they are confronted with difficult circumstances, which allows them to focus on the future and identify better decisions. Focusing very little on low-income people instead emphasizing on low-income groups as a whole could become the solution to alleviate poverty in an emerging economy which also includes buying assets in community organizations, schools, playgrounds, as well as other areas that allow residents to communicate with each other, as well as providing residents greater participation in the community decision-making process. Governments in emerging economies should make sure that they are investing money for initiatives that help people get out of poverty is important as it is a social issue, not a personal issue.