FamZoo News

Trick or treat...or trade-in?

Does Halloween motivate your kids to haul in massive loads of candy every year?

If so, you’re probably dreading the unpleasant side-effects — dental, mental, and otherwise.

Here’s a tip for replacing the sugar high with a savings infusion. It includes guidelines and stats.

HOW TO RUN A CANDY BUY-BACK PROGRAM

My money gets paid for hanging out? Nice!

The good news...

Kids who received parent-paid interest on their FamZoo cards earned an average of $3.74 last month.

That’s certainly more motivating (and habit-forming we hope) than a traditional savings account.

The bad news...

THE PERCENTAGE OF KIDS EARNING INTEREST IS...

Money ABCs Without the Zzz

Since when does a preschooler smile when reading a picture book about financial literacy?

Since self-proclaimed “former money moron” Scott Alan Turner created Money A to Z. That’s when.

Finally, a thoughtful book about money that won't bore your youngster to sleep. Need proof? Check out Stephen Goodwin's daughter bringing the smiles above!

I just reviewed “Money A to Z” last weekend. Yes, I read it all by myself. No help from Stephen — I’m a big boy now. And it left me smiling too. Two thumbs up. All the right money messages to kickstart the personal finance conversation with kids 2 to 5.

The favor? Let’s rally the youth financial literacy troops and help Scott spread the Money ABCs to more little ones.

SUPPORT THE KICKSTARTER

Smarties are like Netflix!

Ms. Montana uses a Halloween candy analogy to teach her 10 year old the basics of index funds in Raising Wealthy Kids: Stocks, Index Funds and Halloween Candy. Brilliant!

The analogy works for kids of all ages — even adults.

Smarties might be Netflix. Almond Joy might be General Electric. But buy a nice mix, and you’re sure to get plenty of good stuff. Me? I’ll take the Bogle Mix!

CHECK OUT THE ANALOGY

You can get paid for that?!

So, you’ve been using our cards with your family for a while now.

Did you know there’s a magical link of triple goodness hiding in your Store tab?

And when you use that magical link to refer another family to FamZoo, you win, they win, and we win.

You get $15. They get an extra free month. We grow.

It’s a three pointer for youth financial literacy.

START SHOOTING THREES

Kudos to...

• Liz of Chief Mom Officer and Kathryn of Making Your Money Matter — for tracking me down at FinCon last week in Dallas. So fun to finally meet in person after all the social media interactions. And, I was tickled to see the FamZoo stickers were a hit with Liz’s youngster (allowing Dad a little respite in the EZ chair apparently). Hmmm, hope those stickers come off the furniture... 😬
• Elle Martinez of Couple Money — for winning the 2017 Plutus Award for Best Family Finance Blog. So well deserved! Of course, as the Family Finance category sponsor, we were delighted to see the trophy go to a long-time FamZoo parent! (And, no, we had nothing to do with the voting.) Check out this fun picture of Elle and me at the ceremony.
• John K. — for spurring us to fix a long-standing bug. Did you ever notice activity alerts would show the wrong account balance after a card load? Super annoying. It was related to our overly conservative algorithm for trying to make sure we never overstated a card’s balance. Nerdy details aside, John gave us the prodding we needed to finally tweak the algorithm and squash the bug. Sometimes we just need a good kick in the pants!

What’s behind the mask?

“Money doesn’t change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that is all.” ~Henry Ford

The trick is to keep working on those core values with your kids. That’s the treat that will be amplified by their future financial success.

Dear Bill...

Got a question, comment, concern, suggestion?

I’m no robot, just an everyday dad. Hit reply, and I’ll respond.

Or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter.

And have a happy Halloween!🎃

Talk to you soon,
Bill

Founder, FamZoo.com