If time is money, and money is time productively spent, then are banks giant clocks and calendars of well-spent time? That’s too philosophical for my liking.
My point is that the world revolves around money and budgeting. So it’s our job to guide our kids in the best possible direction in the complicated labyrinth of money.
From Piggy Bank to Biggy Bank
As a kid, having my piggy bank, all of my dreams and wishes were in that “bank”. Unfortunately one day I accidentally crashed my piggy bank and I saw all of my dreams and wishes fall apart.
Time flies and now I’m facing personal accounts, e-banking, real money, cards, and all of that thanks to the improvement of technology.
In this digital era, our kids are growing with knowledge and practice of the money system. No more (or rarely) piggy banks, only personal accounts, and savings.
No matter how smart our kids are it is not easy to teach them about modern money, personal account, e-banking, transactions, debt, etc.
They have to gain skills and knowledge about earning, saving, borrowing, investing, and most importantly monthly plans of how to spend the money that we as parents put on their payment cards.
They must know that we earn that money from our work, and we manage to have savings despite all of the daily/monthly costs.
And how’s that? Let’s find out!
Benefits of Technology for Teaching Children Money Management
We can’t sit aside and wait for time to educate our children because it’s a fast and dynamic world we live in.
The Internet gives various methods, apps, games, and tools that help in easily educating our kids about money management.
Lots of games feature paying bills, managing money and debts, paying loans, and other financial situations that are important later in life.
To conclude, digital apps make parents’ lives easier, so we need to take that opportunity and utilize tech to the max!
Budgeting Apps
We all plan but life is full of surprises that we must deal with. How can I explain to my kid that their new boots were not part of our budget for this month?
That’s the whole point of teaching our children the fundamentals of budgeting and guiding them in the vast world of money.
With all the everyday activities we have, we seldom have time to educate our children about money management and budgeting.
But, we are lucky that the digital world has brought us a lot of apps that help us teach kids about financing.
Free app founded in 2006, which helps with your and your family’s budgeting and planning. It has countless of users approving its great qualities and flexibility.
It’s also a great way to interactively introduce your children to money management, and at the same time track your finances.
Featuring a mobile app, PocketGuard offers everything you need for balancing your expenses, right from your pocket!
The easy and user-friendly interface is a great reason why you should introduce this app to your children.
Financial Literacy Games
It’s an older TV game show that can playfully teach your children about their finances and future balances.
Also, the constant clues and thought-provoking questions make the show perfect for little children that are introducing their little minds to the concept of money.
You and your children can try this interesting game made by the University of Cambridge, similar to the game show.
- Catan and Monopoly
Classic board games with digital adaptations that you and your children can play (don’t get sad if you feel nostalgic though).
You can also find great free remakes of these games online and of course in local shops! Similar games are also posted on the App Store and Play Store.
But watch out! Children can get pretty mad if they lose!
Last but not least, this simulation is a perfect opportunity for teens to introduce themselves to the stock market and gain knowledge that they will use for the rest of their lives.
In conclusion, games about financing can be found everywhere. Every app, starting with the free ones and ending with the pricey ones, has its qualities and offers priceless knowledge about money.
Virtual Allowance Platforms
Virtual allowance platforms are apps that track your children’s finances and grant you the power to monitor their money life and all their expenses.
We will check out several virtual allowance platforms, with easy and fun interfaces, suitable for all ages.
FamZoo is an app that offers a lot of opportunities for parents that want to get their children ready for the real world.
Besides its clean and easy interface, FamZoo offers several services such as prepaid cards for all ages, chore tracker, savings and loan tracker, family billing, automated allowances, chore reports, and help from experts in financial fields.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s available on every browser?
iAllowance is a simple and fun app with a creative chalkboard interface that makes family budgeting fun and playful.
Key features are automatic allowance payments, chores/jobs tracking, parental control and, many more useful features!
That’s not all! There are many more similar apps, each painted with its own unique colors. Your job as parents is to find the most suitable one for you and your family, and start playfully budgeting.
Tech and Habits
Nowadays, checking your social media is a habit. Messaging friends is a habit. Calling relatives is a habit. Playing games has also become a habit for many children.
Do you see a pattern? It’s pretty obvious, technology is directly linked with habits. In other words, what makes technology so worldwide is the habit of using it.
So, in order to make our kids control their budget early on, they need to make a habit out of it (just like they make a habit out of eating all the sweet goodies in the kitchen).
That means starting them off young by introducing them to the games and apps mentioned above.
But don’t leave them alone. Be there, play with them, award them, and give them every single bit of motivation you can think of.
Because kids like kids don’t often do as we say unless we bribe them with a Snickers or a Kinder (for me and my children that’s the hardest to say no to type of bribe).
Conclusion
The world we live in, as mentioned before, is composed of money and technology as the main factors of progress and development.
It is our duty as parents to utilize and use the positive sides of these factors to creatively educate our children about planning and budgeting.
After all, our children are the ones that will lead the world in the future, so we need to act as their sensei and help them master the art of money.
