Parents in Action: Simulating banking for kids

In recent years, the fastest growing group of bankruptcy filers are those people who are 25 years of age or younger!

Experts say that financial illiteracy is in large part fueling the trend.
However, you can do your kids a fiscal favor by starting them young on the road to “dollars” sense.

Websites like threejars.com help teach kids about earning, saving, and spending money in a safe, easy-to-use environment.

When parents sign up for a membership, an account is also created for their child. Parents choose how much and how often to pay an allowance, and these payments, along with any gifted money, are posted to the child's three jars account.

Parents hold the actual cash, while three jars tracks each child's earnings.
Then kids choose what to do with their money: save it, spend it, or share it.
They can even earn interest from their parents.

For older kids, many banks offer co-accounts you can open for your child. Tech-savvy teens and tweens get their own debit card with balance information and alerts sent to their phone by text every morning.

Parents control the account behind the scenes, but the child is responsible for the balance, debit card, pin and deposits.

These accounts can be customized with e-mail alerts, text messages and preset spending limits.

How young is too young? Well, if they're ready to ask for things, they're ready to start learning about money.

For more information and resources for your family, visit www.tbparenting.com