family mint

Hooray for financial literacy! I know so many adults who are living out of envelopes as they struggle to gain control of spending. While that is admirable, I think they would all say it would be easier if they had been given an appreciation of the value of a dollar as kids.

Family Mint can be a big step in that direction. The site is free! You, the parent, become the banker. (Presumably, you will be a benevolent banker like George Bailey. Don’t be Mr. Potter. He’s mean.) You run your own family bank, treating deposits and withdrawals as real money. You can use Family Mint’s system for allowance, chore money, etc., or simply as a teaching tool. Accounts can be set up for each child with an automatic allowance system. Children can save for specific goals and easily track and monitor their money with a very child-friendly interface.

The beauty of this is that you set the rules for your bank (just like the real world – Ha! I’m kidding, kind of). If your children earn money or allowance from you, you can use Family Mint to track that and allow them to keep up with their “deposits.” They cash out when a goal is met (or according to whatever parameters you set). Children can also use this to keep up with a real piggy bank. I can also see using this just as a homeschool unit on money and the banking system, without real money entering into the equation.

I think Family Mint is a tremendous resource for parents, whether they homeschool or not. The work is done for you – I recommend you give it a try and use it as a teachable moment in your family. It’s much easier to learn money lessons when you are a child than when you are an adult with a mortgage, taxes and a credit rating to protect.

Can I get an amen on that? :)

 

Sound too good to be true? Read Family Mint’s FAQs for more info:

FREE: Why is FamilyMint free? How do you plan to make money?

We are committed to providing a version that is free to ensure that all families have access to the tools necessary to bring up financially savvy children and make parent’s lives easier.

We will be introducing a Pro version in the near future that will carry a monthly or annual fee.  Our goal is to keep the base product free and charge for value added features.

SIMPLE: How long will it take me to set up my family?

Most families can get started in as little as 10 minutes. This includes setting up the children’s profiles and creating a starting set of goal accounts.

SECURE:  Is my data safe?  Are my children protected?

FamilyMint takes security seriously and our number one desire is to keep your kids and their information private and safe.  All of your family’s information is accessible only by you.  You will never have outsiders sending unsolicited messages to your children.

 

I was asked to review Family Mint as part of the TOS Crew. The site is free for anyone. My opinions are my own.