Ever found yourself talking to your kids only to hear the words of your parents coming out of your mouth? It’s quite confronting isn’t it?!
This often happens when discussing earning, saving and spending money. As parents, it’s important to pass on lessons learnt to help our kids understand the value of money. The reality is though, it’s a completely different world out there.
Many of us grew up seeing everything paid for with cash, but our children’s generation rarely see actual banknotes and coins. A cashless society with online shopping and “tap and go” is becoming the norm. So what are the best ways to help children become financially savvy in this environment?
Financial education is so important from an early age. The landscape is vastly different now, so it’s important to find new ways to help kids understand the value of money.
A great way to do this is through some of the apps available…and there is a lot of them out there to choose from! Below are a few that are free, highly rated and available from the App Store on your smartphone.
ASIC’s Track My Spend: a great feature about this app is that it allows you to record expenses and nominate a spending limit. It helps the user identify “needs” and “wants” and allows you to view your expenses history. Easy to use and probably good for teenagers who are starting to earn and spend their own money, whether it be little things like the school canteen, going to the movies or slightly bigger purchases such as clothing and footwear.
Rooster Money: this app allows the user to keep track of their money, save towards a goal and earn rewards. It’s an app for the whole family to be involved in and no actual money is involved. As parents you still control their actual bank accounts. It allows you to allocate a pocket money amount each week (or ad hoc if you prefer) and set up “Spend”, “Save” and “Give” pots.
Spriggy: this app allows the user to have a pre-paid debit card. Each account holder receives a “Spriggy” card that can be used anywhere that Visa Debit cards are accepted. Only the money on the card can be spent and you get real time notifications on spending activity.
These are just a few out of many but check with your bank as to the apps they have on offer too.