Money Management Certifications - Review

Besides teaching your children to love God, teaching them to handle money is one of the most important things you can do.  If you don’t believe me, hand a non-money wise teen your credit card and see how quickly they can max it out on absolutely nothing.    Money Management Certification from FamilyMint is a great tool to help your children (and teens) begin to understand proper handling of money.  The program consists of a workbook and an online site, however the online site is optional.

Topics covered are Tracking Your Money, Goal Setting, Budgeting, and Interest (Growing $).  The workbook includes general savings account worksheets, goal tracking worksheets, net worth tracking worksheets, check and deposit slip worksheets and a certificate of achievement.  Theoretically you’ll need one workbook per student.   I copied the worksheets on my printer so I’d have a set for each girl.  I then drew each one on our white board as we worked through each lesson.  The girls took turns working at the whiteboard, and then they would make sure their worksheet was filled in accordingly.

Pros:  The online account is super quick and easy to set up.  It took me all of 5 minutes to get the “bank” and both kids accounts set up. 

Cons:  I spent a good 20 minutes trying to find the certification page so I could enter my access code and get started.  I finally had to have someone send me the link.  This MAY have been an issue with my browser and not the FamilyMint site, but it sure was annoying.

Despite my issues of initially getting onto the site, actual use of the site is very easy.  Both girls were able to enter their deposits, withdrawals and transfers with little help from me.

 

There are three production options available.  See which one will work best for your family.

Option 1:  Money Management Certification Program with PREMIUM access for life!   $29.99

Option 2: Premium online application subscription.   $24.99 annually or $4.95 monthly.

Option 3:  FREE online application.  $0

This has been a wonderful resource for our family.   Both of my kids are pretty good about saving money already, but this has helped them to understand about setting financial goals and budgeting.     We don’t give allowances (shocking I know), but the children do receive money from family members for birthdays and holidays, which typically goes in part into their savings accounts.  Now, both girls have established a goal for some of their money and are coming up with ideas of how they can generate income.

I highly recommend the FamilyMint program.   Although this program was designed for children and teens, adults who are struggling with their finances would really benefit from the program and applying it’s principals to their money.