Mark Zuckerberg Wants You to Read About How the Poor Spend $.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's 2015 New Year's resolution was to read an important book every two weeks and discuss it with the Facebook community.Zuckerberg's book club, A Year of Books, has focused on big ideas that influence society and business. For his 17th pick, he's gone with "Portfolios of the Poor" by researchers Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven. First published in 2009, the book is the culmination of 10 years of research into the financial lives of the lowest classes of Bangladesh, India, and South Africa. The researchers discovered that some of the poorest people in the world have sophisticated financial planning techniques which allows them and their families survive.A fundamental finding in "Portfolios of the Poor" is that extreme poverty flourishes in areas not where people live dollar to dollar or where poor purchasing decisions are widespread, but instead is where they lack access to financial institutions to store their money.The authors' research has inspired them and their respective organizations to find ways to bring banking to the world's least fortunate.Zuckerberg explains his latest book-club pick on his personal Facebook page:It's mind-blowing that almost half the world — almost 3 billion people — live on $2.50 a day or less. More than one billion people live on $1 a day or less.This book explains how these families invest their money to best support themselves.I hope reading this provides some insight into ways we can all work to support them better as well.Zuckerberg has an estimated net worth of $41.6 billion, according to Wealth-X, and has taken Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's "Giving Pledge," a promise to donate half of his wealth before his death. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have already donated hundreds of millions of dollars to healthcare, education, technology, and immigration reform initiatives.Find out more about, "A Year of Books," here.