Moonjar: a great way to start financial education early

Personal finance

I finally got around to installing MS Money 2006 and found a coupon for a free Moonjar that reminded me of what a fun tool it is to teach money matters to kids. (For parents out there, I think subscriptions to Highlights magazine for kids also offers a similar deal.) The Moonjar just refers to a little box with three compartments: one for savings, one for spending, and one for sharing, and it comes with a little transaction log book, so it’s an all-around great way to teach kids about financial responsibility and even think about their role in the world.

Sure, that might sound dry and boring, but I remember when I was a kid, my mom made it into a game for us to get “tokens” each time we got a chore done that would amount to 30 minutes of TV time. She put a little ceramic piggy bank on top of the TV for us to deposit the tokens, and maybe it sounds weird, but we really got into it. Anything’s fun for kids if you can make it into a game!

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One Feedback on "Moonjar: a great way to start financial education early"

MoneyMoney101 Simple Money Management

If I only knew now what I knew then……. Know one ever told me that starting at age 25 if I saved $65 a month by age 65 I’d have a million dollars. And know one ever really taught me the importance or the principle of savings. Really, if I had to choose what my parents taught me about money—how to save it, how to make it or how to spend it—I’d probably have to say, what they taught me the most is how to spend money.

For many preteens and teens today, although bright, educated and smart, they fail when it comes to basic, simple money management skills. 4 out of 5 teenagers can not tell you what goes on inside a bank. And 73% didn’t know that a stock would yield more over time than a savings account, according to Jump $tart. Why? Because finance and money management are not being taught in schools or is just now starting to be taught in certain areas of the country in high schools. Plus, high schools are experiencing the largest dropout rate in their history—1 dropout every 7 seconds or 1 million drop outs in 2005. Plus, a minimum wage increase has just been turned down and wage stagnation is at its worst in 30 years.

If you don’t take the time to teach your children the principles of money NO ONE ELSE WILL! MoneyMoney101 for preteens and teens is coming! Stay tuned.