How to Teach Kids About Financial Literacy with Money Apps

By: Riley Adams of Young and the Invested

Every parent wants to give their kids the best and teaching them financial literacy is a big part of that.

However, it can be hard to know where to start or what tools are out there for teaching your children about money.

That’s why I’ve created this guide on teaching financial literacy through money apps! In particular, I highlight one app which handles a lot of the heavy lifting for educating your kids on the ins and outs of financial literacy – and financial responsibility.

Let’s dive in!

What is Financial Literacy and Why Is It Important?

Financial literacy is teaching your kids about budgeting, making smart decisions with money, and teaching them to think in the long term.

Further, it’s understanding:

they have choices when it comes to how they spend their money
how to budget for wants vs. needs
not overextending themselves financially
how compounding returns work and much more.

In a nutshell, learning important financial literacy concepts helps you to make sound financial decisions now and in the future. And because kids are young, learning these lessons early can result in wonderful outcomes down the road.

Teach them about how money works, it can help to have the right tools to build them into financially responsible adults. Financial apps specifically meant for kids to learn financial management are well-suited to the task.

What Kind of Tools Can You Use To Teach Financial Literacy?

If you don’t have any experience teaching financial literacy or aren’t sure where to start, there are a number of different tools you can use that will make teaching your kids about money much easier.

Greenlight is one such app for teaching financial literacy. It’s an all-in-one debit card for kids that teaches them how to budget, perform chores, save, and even invest their allowance.

The app originally started as a debit card paired with a bank account for parents to

Greenlight markets itself as “the money app for families to raise financially smart kids.” Greenlight has the goal of socializing and teaching children the value of a dollar.

The reason, by providing them with an opportunity to earn, spend, save up for, and invest in their dreams (and their current needs), parents can help instill smart habits at a young age that will last throughout adulthood.

To use the app effectively, parents need only set up the boundaries over where kids can shop, monitor ongoing notifications about expenses, as well as set up and administer a chore plan with an allowance payment schedule.

Kids and parents can use the app to:

set savings goals
learn how to spend wisely through in-app parental controls on where kids can shop
setup a chore list with accountability tracking that leads to regular allowance payments to build up their balance
invest in the stock market through the stock trading app features available on a Greenlight + Invest account

Parents provide every needed level of control through custom privileges, like rules about when they can spend what how much–keeping them on track towards good financial habits without micromanaging.

Pairing these features with a Greenlight debit card makes money simple to transfer from person to person. Also erasing any frictions from multiple banks, handling cash, or worrying about visiting an ATM or other retailer to reload a prepaid debit card.

How Financial Apps Can Help

The Greenlight product example makes it easy for parents to have their children’s backs while laying the groundwork for responsible spending in adulthood- all without undermining lifetime success!

Other apps can also help with this goal as well. Consider alternatives like goHenry, BusyKid, FamZoo, and RoosterMoney as well.

There’s no time like now to start making sure your family’s financial future is on track. Consider using a powerful financial literacy tool for kids to build their understanding of money now to benefit them later.

Having complete control and insight into your kids’ money habits can help guide discussions, provide opportunities for discussing important concepts like interest, compounding returns, budgeting, and more.

These apps all provide a lot of in-app financial literacy resources to direct your discussion. Resulting in hands-on financial skills development.

How Else Can I Teach My Kids Financial Literacy?

Teaching kids financial literacy comes down to daily actions taken and the behaviors practiced by parents with money. If you don’t show command and comfort with handling money, your child likely won’t develop a strong sense of how to manage their own either.

In this case, take teaching financial literacy as an opportunity to learn more about it yourself. Demystifying money only provides benefits. Since this allows you to enjoy more financial comfort and peace of mind for you and your family.

If you can teach them good habits from an early age, these will grow stronger, resulting in more and more benefits accumulated over time.

And not only do habits compound, so so does money through investing.

Introducing your child to the world of investing in a responsible and secure way is very important. One great example you could look for teaching them financial literacy with money apps.

Investing from a young age encourages kids to start thinking about money as something they can control and grow. Rather than just a number on the screen.

You can help them to understand the importance of diversification. Which is the process of investing in a wide variety of securities instead of just one investment.

Thankfully, many investing apps for kids default users into index funds, products that provide instant diversification for your investment portfolio.

That way, you don’t need to worry about having too much exposure to any one company. And, much like life, diversifying across multiple areas likely breeds more resiliency and security.

In short, understanding money and how the decisions you and your kids make lead to the best lifelong outcomes. Consider starting with one of these apps and see how they work for raising your financially smart kids!