I have to admit that I haven’t done as well teaching my daughter Amanda (age 9) about money as I would like. When I heard about Kids $ave software, I thought it could solve a lot of my problems.
Problem 1: I always forget to give Amanda her allowance on a regular basis. When she wants to buy something, since I know that I haven’t enabled her to save on her own, I usually just end up handing over some cash (as an advance or payment in arrears), which doesn’t teach her anything about the true value of a dollar.
Problem 2: When I do give Amanda her allowance, she will spend it at the first opportunity. Two dollars buys you junk worth two dollars, which again is not really conveying the message about her money that I would like.
Problem 3: Even if Amanda does decide to save up for a much-wanted big-ticket item, it seems out of reach so her resolve soon fails and she’s back to buying junk.
The program is easy to download from www.kidnexions.com. You can try it out free for 35 days. Anytime during the trial, you can purchase a key, which allows you permanent access to the program. You can set up different accounts for various family members. Each child can customize his or her own screen.
How did Kid $ave work at solving my problems? Quite well actually.
Problem 1–SOLVED: I can set it up to pay Amanda on a weekly basis. I can also add in bonuses, which I like, because I do financially reward her for taking care of her brother or doing extra chores around the house.
Problem 2–SOLVED: Cash just screams out, “Spend me!” Seeing a balance in her account is something that she enjoys. This makes it operate truly like a bank account, which really does teach her how money works. If we are out, and she wants to spend some of her money, I can give her the funds and then debit her account online.
Problem 3–SOLVED: Last year I did open a savings account for Amanda (you can rectify real bank balances with the amount online as well). She has decided that she would like to buy a trumpet next year when she is allowed to join orchestra at her school. Having a goal has made her much less frivolous with her money. This is one of the best features of this program. She can play around with the time and see how long it will take her to reach her goal. She has had a lot of fun with this, even seeing how much she will have in ten years.
Go ahead and download the program today and try it out. One of our readers will win a license key so that they can download the full version. Just leave a comment and we’ll draw a winner on January 31.
So nice to see this discussion. If the current times show us anything, it’s the importance of raising financially savvy kids that are in the position to ward off money problems in the future.
Another good product is http://www.fiftyp.com. They offer free memberships, there is nothing to download and in addition to learning about saving, spending and investing, they also stress sharing. Kids can become socially conscious while learning to manage money if fun ways. Its fun for the kids too and easy for parent. The kicker is that the company donates 50% of it’s own money to charity and lets the kids decide how the money is donated to the charities. Try it out at http://www.fiftyp.com
All kids coul use something like this
Great learning tool
🙂
Good luck!
This is great. I am sure that this would have been helpful for alot of us to learn when we were younger!
Oh how neat.
Enter me please!
airalynn@gmail.com
please enter me thanks, freebiegoddess03@aol.com
Neat Idea! Please enter me!!!
This is wonderful!!!
My little niece needs this… but I don’t think it’ll keep her Mom from stealing her money.
I would love to win this for my daughter and granddaughter
I would love this to use with my little girl
you sound like my gf always everything money why you no just let things take care them self an no worrys
I wish I had this years ago. My daughter is 18 and knows nothing about money- she is very stubborn to teach anything to. This would be perfect.
I wish I would have had this when I was a kid. Our kids today are so lucky.
Thanks for the contest!
Please enter me.
How neat! Thanks for the chance to win!
What a great idea, wish I had thought of it.
I would love to have this
This sounds great!
This software is genius.
This would be great to get me to be consistent with allowances, and the kids to save and see the great results.
Count me in please!
This would be perfect for my son. It would help him in saving for things he wants instead of buying junk!
I wish all of you the best of luck…& me toooooo LOL
This is a fantastic idea…I’m going to download it and try it with both my 12 and 5 year old.
This looks very cool!
This would be perfect for showing teaching kids about money!
what a neat idea
I hope my boy likes the software.
Hi, I love the idea of this giveaway. I think I need it more than my children! Please enter me in your contest. I appreciate it…..Thanks,Cindi
my kids would love this!
I blogged your contest on this post:
http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/01/tuesday-122-edition-of-contests-galore.html
This will surely take care of the “I want’s” in the stores….I would love to have this prize.
Thanks,
Linda
Please enter me! Thank you.
MY GRANDKIDS NEED THIS AND SO DOES THEIR MOTHER!!!
Please enter me. Thank you!
Please enter me. Thanks!
Enter me
interesting
my kids really need this
Really wonderful! We’d absolutely benefit. Please enter me!
I really need this.
Please enter me – thanks!
DEFINATELY sign me up! I would love to do this with my children…a girl age 9 and a boy age 7 who thinks that at every store he should get something because he has been “good”. That’s what I get for bribing!!!
Wow!!
My 10 year old can make a penny scream ~ on the other hand, my 14 and 17 year old just make me scream!!! I would love to have this to teach them a couple of lessons!!
WOW! I had no idea something like this even existed! I’m excited to try it out. I think it will work because they can actually “SEE” their progress right in front of them. Brilliant!!
This is great.
We are all learning together. Love to win. Best of Luck to ALL who ENTER
What a great tool for kids….and even adults!
please enter me thanks
Wow. What a great concept. One of my sons loves to buy the junk and the other will save. Both love to use the computer so what a fun way to teach them to save. Adults can use it too right??
what a great prize!!!!! My youngest grandson would think this was super!!
Sign me up!
I’ve got the same 3 problems. x 3 girls!
sounds like a great program
Don’t have any kids but looks like a neat idea.
This sounds a fantastic lesson in financial planning, and I believe the earlier, the better. I wish there had been something like this for me before I went out on my own.
This sounds like a great program! I really want my kids to grow up and be smart about money.
Cool idea. We could really use this in our household.
This looks great! My kids would really like this!
I would love to have this! My daughter definitely needs to learn more about saving.
This is awesome. Great for the Granddaughters. Enter me please.
sounds awesome! count me in.
I have already been named “Bank of Mom” as I hold all the money for my daughter, however it would be great to allow her access to her savings to see what she can save for or how much she’s willing to spend on “frivolous” things rather than what she really wants.
I have four sons at home. This would be great as they only have one computer to share. I have a kitchen timer I set for one hour each., each day.
This would be PERFECT, because we too forget to give our boys allowances regularly! I would very much like to win this!
What an awesome product!
I’d love to have that!
This looks great for my kids, one of which is also Amanda!
my kids would love this….I had never heard of such a thing. Wow.
Thanks for the great contest—Please enter me!!!
So great- downloading trial as I type. Would love to have this for future little savers! 🙂
This is such a great tool to start the kids out with. What a great idea.
What a great tool. I think this would be perfect for my starting out 5 and a half year old!
what a great tool- adults grapple with this too- i might learn something as well!
Great idea! How else can we teach them when we are just handing them over money or buying what they want. Responsibility feels good to a kid too!
OOH! I bought my niece one of those electronic ATM machines that keeps track of your savings but this is way cooler.
wow, great program
my daughter has the same problem!! Money burns a hole in her pocket! I’m off to download the trial version!
this is great thanks
I am a CPA. I need some help teaching my kids, because they will never listen to mom.
This is good. I have a cousin could really use it. It would be great. thanks.
Wow! What a way to start our kids off right by teaching them to be financially responsible before we actually send them out on their own!
I’ve been using Quicken for many years, and have been trying to design a similiar program for my kids. This software will solve my problem.
Thanks for the update. I’m going to pass it on to the homeschooling community.
this would be awesome for our son!! thanks
This sounds amazing for our family….the kids would love having a bank account on the computer.
I was just talking to my hubby about starting an allowance for my daughter. This looks great!
Neat idea. Like you, I forget to pay my son regularly….
my two boys would love this.
This would be so great for my 8 year old… Thanks for offering and considering me for the prize!
This would be great for my daughter!!
Great Idea!
Great! I would love to teach my girl to save.
They know how to SPEND!!!!!
This is wonderful!! I would love this for me! And ahem, ofcourse the children!
I think this is a wonderful product and would love the full version
I love this idea! Sounds like it would be very helpful!
great idea!
What a fantastic program! I was never taught savings by my parents nor was my husband by his. So we’ve struggled to figure it out on our own and are now struggling as to how to teach our kids. This sounds like an amazing solution!! Good luck to me and to everyone else entered! It’d be nice to win the key, but I’ll probably purchase one 🙂 LOL.
THIS WOULD BE GREAT FOR MY 14,11&8 YEAR OLD GRANDSONS.PLEASE!!!!
What a great way to teach our computer saavy kids about money!
Totally love this. No more weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth (for mom or boy)…
Wish this had been around when I was a kid….
This is awesome:)
Definitely going to try this out–we have been trying to figure out how to deal with this since we have all three of those problems.
great for my grandchild
This sounds a great tool to help kids to save. Thanks
My 10 year old is terrible with money, this would be wonderful to have!
I would love to win this. Looks like a great saving tool.
This is an awesome thing! with all the people that are in so much debt because they never learned to handle money this is a way to teach the future generation money skills.
I would love to win this for my daughter
Enter Me Please !!
what a great program!!
Oh, this is very nice 🙂
My mother did a wonderful job teaching me to be savy with my money. I think this would be a fantatic new and hip way to help my children become savy with their money.
This is great! I would probably try this software along with my 4 siblings!
This would be fantastic for my oldest daughter!
This is great.
I’d love to win this program! And hey, it really looks like it could benefit kids of ALL ages…;)
I’d love to win this!
This is awesome! I wish this was available when I was a kid! My daughter would use this well!
This is awesome! I can’t wait to try it!
I would love this! Sounds like a great idea!
I would love to be able to use this with my kids!
What a great idea! I’ve got one SPENDER, and one saver, and Sophia’s just too young to know yet! I think this would help, thanks for entering me!
Sign me up my kids have spent it all.
This looks cool. I would love it for my kids
This would be awesome for both my boys!! Probably for me too..lol!
I have been focused on trying to teach my boys the value of money as well. It is difficult when kids have everything they need and almost everything they want. I would love to have this software to help us raise money savey kids.
I am going to download the demo version now!
Sign me up! This would be GREAT for my two 9 year olds!
This sounds great. I will have to try it with my kids.
I’d love to have that! I have the same problem of not remembering to give allowance!
Oh how neat. I would love to use this with my kids.
We are using Payjr and both kids have well over $100 saved up! Cash definitely burns a hole in their pockets!