I found a great tool to help parents teach kids money management. This is one of those things best learned by doing. It also helps instill good habits on how to manage money and shows that there are choices. We know we don’t need to spend mindlessly and we want the kids to learn that too.
FamZoo offers a special credit card for families. It gives parents control and allows kids to get paid for doing specific chores with the card. This is a virtual private family bank system. Parent or guardians set up the rules and are essentially, the banker. The parent controls the main dashboard and kids can sign into their own accounts and manage what they’ve been given the ability to.
What People are Saying:
More about how it works below but here are some comments from families using FamZoo:
“A simple trip to Target used to be a whine-fest. Now I whip out my phone and check everyone’s balances. Then they get to decide if they want to spend THEIR OWN $ – and the answer is usually no. THANK YOU!!!“
“We love it!!! Have had them for about a month and I took my girls out shopping last weekend. I told them how much they had and they enjoyed the experience!!! Such a smart way to prepare our kids for money management!!”
“Life got too busy to follow up on all 5 kids’ chores and paying them each week. Now FamZoo allows me to do it easily! I have my checklists of who needs to do what. I refer to the lists, check them off and pay them all at the same time. They are more motivated as they know they’re going to get paid (instead of momma’s empty promises that she’ll pay on Saturday!) AND I get all the cash in the house cuz if someone finds a dime, they’re giving it to me to make a cash deposit into their spending debit cards!”
“Great Way to Manage Finances. We love that we can instantly transfer funds among family members! Our teenagers have their own cards and enjoy having quick access to their allowances. We’ve been able to monitor their purchases with text alerts ;)”
“Great for teaching kids finances. We have three kids ages 10 to 14 and absolutely love this app. They learn about financial responsibility and the idea of saving money. They feel the independence of having their own debit card for expenses We give them a very high interest rate on their savings to encourage them and they can see their money grow. Also, we created a charity account which gets them thinking about others. It’s fantastic !!!”
How It Works
FamZoo is a Mastercard that can be set up as a prepaid debit card or an IOU credit card. The parent or guardian is the banker, even setting up the interest rate on savings for kid’s accounts. Parents help kids create types of funds in their account for saving, spending, giving or whatever is useful. Kids then designate what their money is earmarked for in a sort of envelope system.
Here are the parent and child account views.
Kids can request funds from their parent or guardian and the system can allow for informal loans. Parents can also charge kids’ accounts for family expenses like data usage for cell phones. Parents can even lock or unlock individual kids’ cards as needed.
Parents can also set up chores and payment to kids when completed.
Setting up Household Chores
There is a small monthly fee that is smaller if you pay for more months in advance. But accounts have a free trial period.
Each child’s name on the card but parent has control.
Gift Subscriptions or Order for Your Grandchild
You can order a FamZoo gift subscription for 3, 6, or 12 months in advance. Also, a lot of grandparents order these for their grandchildren. And it’s especially great if you don’t live near your grandchildren. A way to give all year round but on your budget.
If you need a work around to not have to provide their SSN, you can read this: Workaround.
Know a family with kids? Give them a FamZoo gift subscription and help the parents teach their kids good money habits.
Read More and Get It For Your Family
I hope you found this useful as a great gift idea. What better gift than teaching them how to be responsible in a fun way. 🙂
If you have any questions or comments, please share them in the Comments section below. You privacy is protected. Thank you for reading!
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What a fantastic idea, I love it. I don’t have children but years ago I wrote a book called ‘Young Adults Creating Wealth’ and sold over 7000 books in Australia. Basically, it taught kids about compound interest and had them thinking about saving to buy a house. I was delighted that my 3 nieces used my book to buy a house in their 20’s. It really set them up, especially before the property boom. I love this card and how it is structured for chores and spending. It is good that parents retain control so that they can encourage good habits.
OH that’s amazing you wrote a book for kids on wealth. Your endorsement of this program means a lot. Thank you.
Hello there Paula, I really enjoyed reading your article ‘Teaching Kids Money Management’ and I think this is a very important tool that anyone who is a parent should be privy of and also interested in learning about. FamZoo really sounds like a great idea as I think it would be successful in teaching kids the value of money and also various other products which they come in contact with and learn to appreciate them more.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I agree. I think they appreciate things even more when they earn it.