Review: FamilyMint

"Helping Kids Appreciate Money” are the words on the website under the main title of the site. The principle for this website is that your children give their physically earned money to you as a parent, which you keep, and then once they have withdrawn from their bank account online you can physically give them the cash. I do think this is a good idea especially as this gives the child the will and way of what to do with their own earnings.

As a parent you can set up your children’s account and then allow them to control their money. However you can put goals into your child’s account that they need to abide by in order to save or work towards week by week. The child can set up goals for themselves too in the form of items they may want to purchase over time.

When a child opens up their account for the first time, there is a really easy video available to view to explain how their goals buttons work and how to save/withdraw money, and/or transfer money between goals and the standard account. For a child who is motivated by pictures this website is very helpful. My son has to be motivated by the actual feel of the money in his hand so he takes a little work. When the child hit’s the ‘Transactions’ tab on his account he can see a complete history of all the transfers that he has made over time. It almost looks like a bank statement in a way or a Paypal account information. These are between his goals or a general withdraw/deposit in his account.

The Parent controls can set are on interest rates , allowance amount, and whether they want to match deposits to encourage the child to set certain savings goals. The graphics are simple and easy to understand probably for a child as young as 6 or 7 who is able to read too. The website recommends some children as young as 5 years old can use it.

Parents can put all of the children’s accounts in the same bank and they can monitor these all in one place instead of having to sign in to multiple accounts to keep track of the money. I did note that the parent can set a rate of interest up in their child’s accounts and increase or reduce it to encourage your child to save more, in order to earn more perhaps.

Our son does not earn an allowance at this time as he has not been willing to do the things required of him to get that allowance. He only earns money currently for extra jobs he does around the home, and through gifts at birthdays and holidays. He likes to have control of his own money and has purchased his own ATM for his room. This met with much negativity from us his parents and so we are trying to change his view of earning, spending and saving. He tends to be very frivolous with his money. He almost spends it as soon as it hits his hands. I can see from some of the testimonials on the website that this has been accomplished by other families.
I have not seriously tried this http://www.familymint.com/ seriously so perhaps in the near future during the summer I will set up the account with a view to changing the way he manages his money.

FamilyMint is a company set up by a parent who was trying to help his wife control their 5 children’s various expenses and manage their own money. He was frustrated that he could not find anything on the market that would meet this need. FamilyMint’s founders and advisors want children to be educated in how to manage money before they hit the world after high school years. There are very few skills taught in public and private schools to enable children and teenagers to handle money in a responsible way.

The link to their website is http://www.familymint.com/ and the TOS Crew members opinions are to be found at
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/768112/
　
　
The above opinion is completed after receiving access to the website in exchange for this review. I have not been paid for this review.