Moms on Money and Work

Last year, I shared a couple key things my Mom taught me about personal finances. This year, I’ll share a few lessons my Mom taught me about work while I was growing up:

• All work is noble. My mom always conveyed a deep respect for honest, hard work and enthusiastic appreciation for a job well done. Whether or not the labor was manual made no difference. The pedigree of the laborer was irrelevant. A frequent and indelible image from my childhood was my Mom offering home-baked cookies and refreshments to folks doing work at our house. They were always delivered with a twinkly smile and a heartfelt thank-you. Work is good for the soul and deserves appreciation.
• The details matter. My wife and I will never forget the image of my Mom using a Q-tip to clean the space between the buttons on our kitchen blender when we were first married. It’s a funny little example of her attention to detail, not to mention her ability to select the right tool for the job! Take a little extra time to do the job right. People notice.
• Just do it — now. Growing up, my Mom would often remind us that a stack of clothes by the stair meant take’em up and put’em away. I now believe it was a subtle form of conditioning for a critical broader point: if you see something that needs to be done, take care of it — preferably sooner rather than later. When cooking, she’d always remind us: “if you clean up along the way, you won’t have much work to do at the end.” That’s wise advice that extends well beyond cooking.

What did your mom teach you about good work and money habits?

I’ve embedded a list of Mom-Money-Lesson articles from around the web below (also available here. Vote for your favorites. Seen another good post on the topic? Add it to the list.

My Mom was, and continues to be, a fabulous role model for me. That, among many other reasons, is why I love my Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Finovate Winners

The Spring Finovate conference that showcases emerging financial technology just wrapped up this week in SF. We weren’t demoing this time (we launched our FamZoo Partner Edition at Finovate last Fall), so we missed the live show (but we did appreciate the nice CEO Interview coverage on the Finovate blog just beforehand).

Whether you attended the show or not, if you’re looking for a very nice recap with quick thumbnail sketches and insights on each demo, check out this excellent FinovateSpring 2012 live blogging post by Erin McCune. You can also browse the #Finovate tweet stream for interesting (not to mention harsh at times) commentary.

Curious to know who’s taken home the Best of Show accolades each conference since 2007? Here’s a list I put together using List.ly. If you can't see it embedded below or want to access all of the social functions, click here.

How To Set Up Your Virtual Family Bank

So you’ve just registered your family on FamZoo and you’re ready to set up your virtual family bank. Let’s start by answering a few simple questions for each of your kids. Don’t worry, there’s no one “right” set of answers. What’s “right” depends upon your unique family situation, your family’s values, your child’s age, and even your child’s temperament:

1.	What purchases do you expect your child to cover?
	A.		Miscellaneous everyday “wants”.
	B.		Contributions to long-term savings goals like college or a car.
	C.		Charitable donations.
	D.		Specific “needs” like clothing or school lunches.
2.	What are appropriate income sources for your child?
	A.		Occasional windfalls like found change, tooth fairy payments, and birthday/holiday money.
	B.		A regular “pocket money” allowance for everyday “wants” that’s either:
		I.		a fixed amount not tied to chores, or
		II.		a fixed amount minus any deductions for chores not completed, or
		III.		a variable amount calculated based on chores completed.
	C.		An expense allowance to cover specific “needs” like clothing or lunch money.
	D.		Occasional payments for extra odd jobs around the house.
	E.		Payments for odd jobs outside the house — like babysitting, mowing lawns, dog/cat sitting, etc.
	F.		Compound interest or matching contributions as an incentive to save.

How’d that go? Were you able to mentally check off the boxes that make sense for your child and your family situation? If so, setup will be a cinch. Even if you aren’t sure about some of the options, you can just ignore those ones for now. Start simple. Start with what you know. You can always go back and fine tune your virtual bank settings afterwards as your thinking evolves, your child matures, your family situation changes, your parental experiments flop, whatever!

Now that you’re equipped with your checklist, let’s walk through the setup.

Find The Blue Bubble

Would you like to use our prepaid card accounts with your kids? At least four cards come with your subscription at no extra charge, and I highly recommend the cards for eligible families. They’re super convenient, widely accepted, and safer than cash. Kids love the responsibility, and parents love the fact that there’s no risk of overdraft or debt. Interested? Jump over to our post on getting started with your FamZoo prepaid cards to learn how to complete your initial bank setup with prepaid card acsounts.

Otherwise, if you’ll be using our IOU accounts with your kids to track money that you’ll be holding elsewhere, just look for the blue bubbles that appear on the Overview page right after you finish registering your family. They’ll lead you through adding your family members and completing your initial bank setup.

Check Out Your Options And Fill In The Blanks

Here’s all you have to do:

1. Click through each plan.
2. Review the brief description.
3. Fill in the blanks to match your child’s situation.
4. Click Save to create any accounts, allowances, and chore lists associated with your choices.

Cheat Sheet

Hopefully, you’ll find the setup pretty self explanatory — please let us know if you find otherwise! But just in case, this cheat sheet graphic shows where to look on the setup diagrams for each option listed on the survey at the top of this post.

Having trouble? Don’t see an option you need for your family? Need a more sophisticated setup? Don’t hesitate to contact us, and we’ll give you a hand.

Here are some sample Virtual Family Bank setups that might give you some inspiration. Steal the ideas you like, and tweak the settings to match your family’s unique situation.

• The Bank of Helbig: Weekly Keep vs. Save with Aggressive Dad-matching Incentives
• The Bank of Emah: Spend-Save-Give Allowance Based on Expectations
• The Bank of Rogers: Tackling the Teen Allowance Conundrum
• The Bank of Fisher: Modifying Behavior with Money
• The Bank of Boogie: FamZoo Mom Sandra H. Describes Her Virtual Family Bank
• The Bank of Dwight: Transitioning Your Teen to a Prepaid Card