Recently, I received one of those heartbreaking cancellation notices we always dread. Jean wrote:
“Unfortunately, my Mom passed away so the card is no longer needed.”
It’s always so sad to hear of a loved one’s passing.
Jean was kind enough to include some additional detail:
Are you a satisfied FamZoo family or partner? Are we delivering on our mission to help parents teach kids good money habits? Do you have a LinkedIn account? If so, we’d be delighted to receive your endorsement.
Here’s how to do it:
Thank you. We appreciate your support!
Financial education supports not only individual well-being, but also the economic health of our nation.1
James Rajotte, Chair of the Canadian House of Commons Finance Committee, echoes the same sentiment:
I firmly believe that one of the key pillars of a strong Canadian economy is having a financially literate population.2
So the “why?” is pretty clear, as is the “when?” — that would be yesterday!
As for the “who?”, I’ve never heard anyone take issue with the old adage: “start early!” So youngsters are clearly a key part of the “who?”. And when money and kids are involved — regardless of what you’re doing in the schools to teach money concepts — you’ll need to involve the parents and guardians. Why? It’s about practice. Like any other skill, kids can’t master personal finance without practice. And, kids can’t practice personal finance without real money. Where do young kids primarily get their money? Their parents, of course. So, the parents need to be involved to make it all work. Even if we were to ignore such practical matters for the moment, it’s very clear that money and values are intimately intertwined. Just ask parents whether they care about how their kids earn, spend, save, and give their money. You’ll invariably hear passionate responses deeply rooted in their unique family history and values. Parental involvement in financial education is a moral imperative.
That brings us to the “how?”. How does a financial institution figure out what’s next and what’s best when it comes to financial literacy? The answer is research. Lots of research. Start by analyzing a large sampling of viable candidate solutions — say, 60 or more. Then, score each according to key criteria, like whether the solution is targeted, interactive, accessible, scalable, and effective. Finally, use that data to pick a handful of best solutions with the most potential.
Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is. But, here’s the good news: it’s already been done for you. All you have to do is check out the System Brief delivered this month by Credit Union Central of Canada. It’s called “Financial Literacy: What’s Best and What’s Next.” You can download it here.
Spoiler alert! FamZoo, our online and mobile application that helps parents teach their kids good money habits, is among the 8 selections for “What’s Best” culled from 67 candidates. And when it comes to “What's Next?”, FamZoo is among just three identified on the “Short Term” list as suitable for rolling out right away.
So, if you’re with a financial institution looking for what’s best and what’s next in financial literacy, we’d be delighted to set up a live, private online demo to show you how FamZoo works and how it can be customized for your institution. Just contact us here.
Related links:
References:
1 Conversation with the Chairman: A Teacher Town Hall Meeting, Ben S. Bernanke, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C., August 7, 2012.
2 Parliament’s Role in Promoting Financial Literacy. A Special Column by the Chair of the House of Commons Finance Committee, Policy and Advocacy Report, Credit Union Central of Canada, November 15, 2012.
It’s all about the B’s this week: books, birds, bees, and (virtual) banks.
Wrong. Don’t confuse “book smart” with “money smart.” One definitely doesn’t imply the other.
Dan describes a recent study showing that “highly educated Americans were most likely to take on unmanageable debt in the pre-crisis years.”
Read about it here.
Related FamZoo Activity: Make sure your child is money smart, too. Start a virtual family bank.
Discuss on FaceBook.
Lindsay writes about a new Personal Responsibility Education Program for 10 to 18 year olds that attacks both birds with one stone. Perhaps a super clear picture of what it really costs — both actual costs and opportunity costs — to raise a baby will help the decision making in those under-developed teen frontal lobes.
Read about the PREP program here.
Discuss on FaceBook.
Guess which virtual bank site the Skyvaras use? That’s right: FamZoo. Woot!
At the end of the segment, Beth Kobliner asserts that virtual family banks will just cause kids to spend more, not less.
Interesting.
In the comment section of the online article, Suzanne responds directly to Beth’s concerns. She writes: “Our experience has been the exact opposite. Our kids — who are featured in this story — actually save a lot! They have specific accounts they have set up to save for big ticket items (like a computer), for college and also for charity donations.”
Suzanne’s experience matches what we’ve heard from other FamZoo families: once kids start managing their own finite pool of money and making specific savings goals, they tend to become very frugal. They’ll voluntarily cut out miscellaneous purchases that are not aligned with their goals. An excellent unsolicited example we received illustrating this effect can be found here.
Of course, unlike some other sites, we don’t marry our virtual family bank with a storefront. Perhaps that was the crux of Beth’s concern.
Listen to the Marketplace podcast or read the transcript here.
Related FamZoo Activity: Set up a savings goal.
Discuss on FaceBook.
We’re constantly scouring the Internet looking for articles related to family finances and teaching kids good personal finance habits. You can visit our ever growing list of family finance bookmarks here. We’re up to 2,967 now!
Here are a few thoughts on the points Ron raises in the article.
First, Ron worries that online sites like ours make money less tangible for kids. I understand that sentiment, but one of our key goals is to educate kids that electronic forms of money are in fact very real — just like physical forms. The sooner kids get that — and they catch on fast — the better. Ideally, they’ll achieve this epiphany before they get a hold of credit cards or purchase boatloads of virtual goods within some nefarious online game.
Second, Ron laments encouraging yet more screen time for kids. I hear that, but realistically any screen time spent on FamZoo periodically checking a balance or progress on a savings goal is negligible compared to the time they’re likely spending on Facebook, Battlefield 3, Halo, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, you name it.
Third, Ron worries that the email based purchase approval process in Tykoon might replace real conversations. That’s one reason we didn’t implement such an approval process in FamZoo. Spurring meaningful conversations between parent and child about life skills is a key objective. The other — and frankly bigger — reason we didn’t implement an email workflow process for transactions is that it’s just plain cumbersome. We constantly remind ourselves while designing FamZoo that parents are insanely busy. We want to make it super simple and painless for parents to be consistent, effective money mentors.
Fourth, Ron notes that it can be annoying when the child’s desired purchase or charitable giving target is not in the canned Tykoon store. This gets into a bigger issue of business models and conflicting priorities: if a site’s mission is to help kids learn good spending habits, but the site makes money by getting a cut of every purchase made from the site, a conflict naturally arises between the mission (delayed gratification) and the revenue (which is proportional to purchase volume). That’s why our business model is a flat, transparent subscription fee. When your child learns and exercises spending restraint, FamZoo’s revenue doesn’t tank.
Lastly, the article includes some discussion about why a more game-like approach isn’t taken. While I’m a fan of infusing game-like incentives into task based systems, I think anyone who thinks they’re going to make a youth financial education game that rivals today’s popular games (like World of Warcraft or even Angry Birds) is going to find that’s a very, very tall order — if not impossible. I think gamification can be applied to personal finance in clever ways, but personal finance just doesn’t really cut it as a game in and of itself. Why? Check out this video
Shh... FamZoo's Secret Finovate Teaser Trailer from Bill Dwight @FamZoo on Vimeo.
Your thoughts? Ron invites families to weigh in on the topic in his related blog post here.
Earlier this month, I was on the phone with Diane B., a new FamZoo Mom from Washington state, helping her set up her family’s allowance and chore system in FamZoo.
By the way, if you need a hand with your setup, just contact us any time. We’re always happy to help, and we really pride ourselves on our personal, responsive service.
On the call, she mentioned that her 12 year old daughter, Annie, was the one who had found FamZoo, registered the family, and delivered the initial demo & sales pitch. Nice. FamZoo’s Marketing & Sales Department — err umm, that would be yours truly — could really use Annie on the “team”!
Subject: my mom said you wanted to hear my fam zoo story
Hello, this is Annie, and my Mom told me to email you my story so here it goes:
So I have always wanted an allowance because I would do all my jobs and get nothing! I had always tried to earn one, but I couldn’t find one that would keep the perfect system (I like the idea of earning my money even if I don’t like my jobs) until I saw FamZoo!
I was just relaxing and watching my brother’s and sister’s show called BizKids ??? (I think) but it showed a family that used FamZoo. A perfect system. So right after the show, I ran downsairs, and I started to sign my family up. I showed my Mom. and she helped me create the accounts, and now I get allowance!
Thank you FamZoo!
Annie B.
Thank you Annie!
P.S. For those who haven’t seen it, the FamZoo segment in the BizKids show that Annie saw is here.
