Since I have a passion for money and teaching my kids to be wise with it, I was intrigued by the idea behind Kidworth. The site, which allows kids to build a "portfolio" of sorts, is free for families who set up accounts for their kids. Here is the skinny on this innovative service:
Go to www.kidworth.com and enter your child's name (first works), as well as their birthday. You can then set up their money goals with the suggested categories, or create your own. Choose from three categories: spending, saving, and giving.
After you've selected a goal, you can fill in specifics for those who may be donating to that goal (why the cause is important to your child, for example) and the total goal amount. We picked Toys for Tots and $25.
Once your child's portfolio has been set up with as many goals as you chose, you will be asked to set up a free account. (We chose to register with Facebook. It was much easier -- Just make sure you are already logged in to Facebook when you chose this option or you will have to start all over with the process.)
Now that you've picked goals, it's time to let family and friends know how to support them. You can wait for a special ocassion (like we did) to send out the event invites from the Kidworth site that include your child's personalized link to their goals. From there, family and friends can actually buy a card with money that will go into your child's account to support their goals. Once the goals are met, kids can cash out!
I see this as a little better than the ol' $5 in the birthday card that will probably be spent on crap, since it allows family to know what spending goals are important to your child and helps with the delayed gratification issues that kids have a hard time overcoming. (Just let kids know that you won't request funds until they have reached the goal.)
Will this work for every family? Perhaps. My family, for example, is not really up on the whole "online gifting" trend, and the birthday cards with cash will continue to roll in. I can still use the site to help my kids set goals and prioritize which ones are important, however. Hopefully, when my family joins the rest of the world in doing things digitally, we'll have a true experience that my kids will enjoy via Kidworth.
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Kidworth, a free service for parents to help teach children money basics -- like allowance!
Go to www.kidworth.com and enter your child's name (first works), as well as their birthday. You can then set up their money goals with the suggested categories, or create your own. Choose from three categories: spending, saving, and giving.
After you've selected a goal, you can fill in specifics for those who may be donating to that goal (why the cause is important to your child, for example) and the total goal amount. We picked Toys for Tots and $25.
Now that you've picked goals, it's time to let family and friends know how to support them. You can wait for a special ocassion (like we did) to send out the event invites from the Kidworth site that include your child's personalized link to their goals. From there, family and friends can actually buy a card with money that will go into your child's account to support their goals. Once the goals are met, kids can cash out!
I see this as a little better than the ol' $5 in the birthday card that will probably be spent on crap, since it allows family to know what spending goals are important to your child and helps with the delayed gratification issues that kids have a hard time overcoming. (Just let kids know that you won't request funds until they have reached the goal.)
Will this work for every family? Perhaps. My family, for example, is not really up on the whole "online gifting" trend, and the birthday cards with cash will continue to roll in. I can still use the site to help my kids set goals and prioritize which ones are important, however. Hopefully, when my family joins the rest of the world in doing things digitally, we'll have a true experience that my kids will enjoy via Kidworth.
Would you ever do something like this with your kids? Check out on the site (www.Kidworth.com) or their FaceBook page (Facebook.com/Kidworth) and sign up for free to see if it's for you!
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Kidworth, a free service for parents to help teach children money basics -- like allowance!
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