Guiding Your Family to Better Money Habits Without Conflict

A FamZoo parent recently asked:

“I seem to remember that there was a way to generate a chart of balances over time. Where can I find that? One of my kids is religious about saving. One spends almost everything they have. I’d like to show the balances to them.”

Specific answer:

You’ll find a chart of the monthly closing balances under Bank > Balance History.

• You can select the desired account from the dropdown in the upper right.
• You can adjust the duration from the dropdown in the left-hand sidebar.
• You can click on a bar in the chart to navigate to the underlying transactions.

Broader answer:

Stepping back, there’s a bigger question and objective here: what does the transaction history say about my family’s money behaviors, and how can I nudge them toward good money habits going forward (without alienating them)?

How to Manage a Shared Family Budget

Families have been using FamZoo cards as a simple, effective budgeting tool since 2013. Multiple cards are used to partition funds into separate subaccounts dedicated to specific purposes: everyday spending, saving for a goal, charitable giving, dining out, clothing, online gaming, family vacations, you name it.

This works beautifully when the funds in a subaccount are spent by a single family member. But how do you handle the case where multiple family members need to draw from the same budget bucket?

Over the years, families have developed a set of best practices for managing this scenario. Here’s how to apply them using a family-wide monthly budget for dining out. Note: I’ve arbitrarily chosen a monthly budgeting cycle for this Dining Out example. Choose any budgeting cycle — monthly, weekly, quarterly, annually, even daily or ad hoc — that fits the category and your family’s circumstances.

Find Your Family’s “Frictionless” Spending

When you have to type your card information into a site or app — or make a payment in person with a swipe, dip, or tap — that little bit of friction creates a small “speed bump” to spending: a brief moment to reconsider whether the purchase is really worth it.

Friction is the enemy of mindless spending.

On the other hand, mindless spending thrives when all friction is removed.

So how do merchants remove spending friction?

By storing your card information as a convenient, automatic payment method.

The result?

• Free trials turn into subscriptions you didn’t mean to start.
• Subscription payments continue long after you’ve stopped using the service.
• Small purchases for in-game items and downloaded media pile up.
• E-commerce checkout becomes a little too easy.

That’s why one of the simplest ways to rein in mindless spending is to periodically identify all the places your card is stored on file with a merchant.

Fortunately, FamZoo makes this very simple.

Make Giving A Goal In Your Family

Generous families make life better all around. Giving does good, and giving feels good.

Here’s a simple recipe to make philanthropy a habit in your family.

Three Tricks To Get More Treats From Card Searches

FamZoo’s built-in search and analysis tools for card activity are among the most powerful of any family card platform. They help parents become better money mentors. With FamZoo, parents can see all the card activity details they need — the what, when, how, and why behind any issues kids encounter with their cards.

Here are three quick tricks to help you uncover even more “search treats” hiding in plain sight: