>First, the lack of skin in the game leads to very poor participant behavior.
is there a reason why they can't require some amount of money down (eg. a few thousand dollars), or does that go against the ISA philosophy?
is there a reason why they can't require some amount of money down (eg. a few thousand dollars), or does that go against the ISA philosophy?
I haven't had to count pennies at the gas pump rather than just filling it up all the way every time, or keep a running tally of what's going into my grocery cart, in many years, but I remember what it was like. $1,000 was a fuckton of money at the time. An unexpected bill for a couple hundred dollars might ruin my whole month, and maybe the next one too.
This was a substantial amount of money for me at that time, but I probably wouldn't have applied for the program had it not been for the ISA. I was unwilling to take on new debt, and I didn't have enough money for an upfront payment. The deposit seemed like a reasonable expenditure to save toward precisely because the ISA showed that the program itself had skin-in-the-game.