Today we talked about the BusyKid App, which allows kids to complete Chores App For kids to Earn Money. BusyKid is the chore app where kids can earn, save, share, spend and invest real allowance. There’s NO SUBSCRIPTION FEE* to use BusyKid but plenty of features to help your kids build a strong financial routine.
While kids earning allowance by completing chores is at the heart of BusyKid, the app is dedicated to providing features that will help parents teach their kids how to manage money.
Chores & Allowance (Set By Age)-BusyKid provides a chore chart where the chores and allowance are preset by the age of the child. Parents have the option to manipulate these as well.
This is something that will really help motivate your kids to complete chores. Once you download the app, make sure to adjust the amount of money to pay your kids or you will go broke. Seriously, my kids are trying to earn as much cash as possible and at first I put value into brushing teeth and making bed, but as we used it more, I realized that those are things that they should be doing daily even without pay. But they still have to check them off in order to earn for other chores. Now, you may be thinking “How do they get paid?” and that’s a great question. It’s easy to sync your bank account with busy kid and it will automatically pay them twice a month or you can adjust the payments to monthly. You can also set up how much kids will be required to donate or to save. This teaches them some financial responsibility, which I talk about often. It’s important for kids to learn hard work ethics and the value of money. There is also an option to order a debit card (for $8) that will have your child’s name on it and will automatically have the payment on it each time you release payment. My kids are super excited about this feature, it makes them feel that they have control of their money and also makes them responsible for how they are spending. (no more asking mom and dad for money!) We can only dream đ
What Kids need to know about Financial Responsibility
As savvy as kids are in this Digital Age, they remain dangerously uneducated about money and clueless about financial responsibly. How kids handle their monetary holiday gifts and piggy bank savings is a great way to get started. As a parent, you have many important things to teach them. First and foremost should be the importance of raising money confident kids and not dependent adults. Let’s be honest, we don’t want our kids living in our basements when they are 30! When I talk to high school students about their finances many reply that they are dependent on their parents. How are they going to go off to college without knowing this important life skill?
What do kids need to know about financial responsibility?Â
Whatâs the right age to start? According to moneycrashers.com, the right age to introduce financially literacy is around age 5, but donât go overboard. Â Childhood shouldnât be inside counting coins, childhood is about playing dress up, getting dirty in the backyard and playing with friends. Let kids be kids, but that doesnât mean that you should be setting a bad example and biting more than you can chew with your own finances. Â Here are a few ways to guide them to become financially “literate.”
Holiday/Birthday Savings
Come up with an agreement before the  holidays or special occasions, like a split or a third. Whatever You feel comfortable with in your house, but allow kids to keep some of their money to become financially responsible for spending. The most important thing at the beginning is to make saving fun.
TALKING TO KIDS ABOUT A BUDGET
Using envelopes or money jars are a terrific way to introduce savings concepts to kids by separating their money into groups: Â Money to Save, Money to Spend , and Money to Give. Itâs a good idea to talk about some savings goals as well both short-term and long-term, which can also be an envelope or jar. A short-term jar might have a pictures of a specific toy, while the long-term jar might have a picture of a trip or of a college. Â Teach your child to set aside money for short-term and long-term goals, and have another jar or envelope for spending on everyday items. Â Itâs hard to financially keep up with 21st century kids, so if there is something that they want itâs OK to let them foot the bill.
KIDS CREATE THEIR OWN BUSINESS
One way to encourage entrepreneurship is to have kids to have their own lemonade stand. Really, there are only a few necessities needed to make a stand. Lemonade, cups, and kids! The location of the stand is also really important because you want to set up in a high traffic area, but also an area that is safe for kids.  Kids that make a lemonade stand can really understand the meaning of “hard earned money.”
Teaching your children how to save is an important step to prepare them for financial responsibility and a secure future. But it wonât go very far if you donât âpractice what you preach.â Most kids don’t know the difference between debit and credit cards. For example, my children think that any time we need money, that we can just visit the ATM machine. Itâs important to explain how the money gets in the ATM machine and the same thing goes for using credit cards. The use of plastic all the time could send mixed signals, so itâs important not to ignore the questions they may have about money. Â Â In other words, you are constantly modeling money habits, which they will catch more than you think.
Ultimately, saving is a good thing and positive financial habits early on in life help mold our future habits. The new year brings a perfect opportunity to teach kids the skills to be equipped to make smart money choices, especially with their newfound fortune. Because itâs never too early to teach the value of money and the importance of saving.
Financial Responsibility Resources for Kids
Banzai Program sponsored by Penn East Federal Credit Union
Banzai is free, online financial literacy for students of all ages. It’s interactive and fun. Over 60,000 math, business, family and consumer science, and computer teachers have joined the program nationwide. Banzai focuses on building credit, borrowing, budgeting, spending, setting goals. This is a wonderful program that I have been using for years in my classroom with students in grades 4-6. They start by learning the important terms and with limited choices, but continue through the program to make decisions about saving for future.
