Family Mint
http://www.familymint.com/
As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, we were asked to tryout the features of this program. While this is free for all of the available options at this time, some of the features and more may be made part of a for fee option. The creators of Family Mint have said there will always be a free component, it just may not include all of the features we had available for our review.
As a child, I remember asking for my mama to purchase something while we were at the store. She replied we couldn’t get it at that time because we did not have the money. I, in all of the wisdom of a six year old, told her she could just write a check. Checking accounts and overdrafts were explained, but I don’t think these things really took root. I recall learning how to fill out a check during math class in 6th grade, hearing other students make some of the same remarks. We may have known a check was giving your money to the entity to which you wrote the check, but did not truly see just how this happened or was tied to money somewhere in some bank. I saved for a new CD or new outfit at the mall, but these were short term events. I did not really know what it meant to budget or save my money for a big goal. I do not want my children to have the same relationship with money I did. I want them to know how to save, to budget for the necessary and for wanted things.
Family Mint is a great option for families to teach their children about money and how budgets and saving works. For younger children, parents can have as much control as needed by the maturity of the child. Older children will appreciate the independence this program gives them–still with the safety net of the program. Family Mint looks and acts much like online banking. The only difference is that this is virtual banking. Family Mint does not ever hold anyone’s money. The parent(s) is the bank while the child is the consumer. Family Mint is the accounting program to track it all.
Family Mint does much more than just track the deposits and debits and interest (if you choose) of your child’s money. Your child can set up different goals to save towards–complete with a picture to serve as a reminder why you are saving that money and not running down to the corner store to spend your allowance on candy bars and pop. This program can work in any way you the parent want it to. Whatever your philosophy in allowance, tithing, etc. you are in control. Family Mint gives you the tools to show your children more of a real world picture on how it all works.
While we did not use Family Mint for our children’s allowance (we don’t give one), we are using it to track the expenses and income of our egg money. This is currently small amounts of cash coming in whenever we sell some eggs. Our girls think we can then use this whenever they want an ice cream cone, etc. We usually are able to buy the feed for the hens out of this money without using money from our own general fund. This account with Family Mint has enabled our girls to understand better that just because the money is sitting there in the jar, it is intended for a future purchase. It was very easy to set up the account. As our family grows, we may have other entrepreneurial endeavors. Family Mint will make it fun to track and plan in a way that goes beyond pencil and paper.
To read about how other families on the Crew are using Family Mint, check out the blog here http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/768112/