Skip to main content

The Family Mint (TOS Crew Review)


When I was growing up, I remember my parents telling me, "debt is a way of life... you'll always have a car payment."  When I married, we discovered the Dave Ramsey way of doing things, and life was so much better!  However, it is hard to completely shut out the training of one's youth, and my husband and I have both struggled at points with a case of the Wants.

When we received the information for Family Mint, I thought, "okay, this is going to help us teach our kids what we want them to learn about managing money - so they will not have to overcome a self-destructive foundation."

I signed our family up for an account right away.

Then, honestly, I forgot about it for the most part.

The kids each have savings accounts at the local bank, and the oldest (10yo) helps fill out deposit slips and do balancing.  They know how much they have in there and they know how much they are putting in (we haven't taken any out yet) each time, so we keep a running total of how much they have saved.  Money comes in for birthdays and Christmas, and those months are long past by this point in our year, so we haven't had money to deposit lately.

The oldest takes 10% to church (if the younger one went to church, he would, too, but that's a different tangent) and spends less than half of everything she gets.  She's my saver.  The younger one (7yo) is a spender - money is like underwear - temporary and revolving.  I definitely need to work on that.

Okay, so with Family Mint online, you can get a free basic account, and the parents act as the bankers.  The kids can each have an account, and "money" is deposited and tracked.  Interest accrues in the manner you set it up to do, and allowances can even be automatically set to accrue.  Additionally, your children (and you!) can set goals: short-term and/or long-term.  That's pretty helpful for the spender!

In actuality, we used this very little, but I have had a strange couple of months and am not altogether organized right now. (currently working on that)  I see real potential with Family Mint, however, and I think it is a valuable resource for parents.  For our family, however, it was a bad time of the year to try it with real money and it didn't occur to me how to use it any other way until this week.

In fact, my daughter is currently reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, and apparently the mother uses play money to help the kids save toward goals, rewards, or real money.  We have been talking about implementing just such a policy, and Family Mint would make a wonderful resource for that!  'Course, many are using it to track their real money.  Just check out my fellow Crew Mates' reviews here.

* Disclaimer: Family Mint provided a free account to me as a member of the 2009-2010 TOS Homeschool Crew for the purposes of reviewing it.  This review is my own honest opinion, and no compensation has been provided.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Health Care in the USA

Well, it is time for another political rant, so depending on your standing, you may want to mosey along.... Health care in the United States is apparently in need of an overhaul.  There are few who disagree.  However, the method of that overhaul is in question.  Many would like to use their power in government to take over health care.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, they are calling it a reform , but it is really just a takeover . So, okay, let's evaluate. Your company, which you have worked for your entire life, is losing money.  It is still afloat, but it isn't doing as well as it could.  You have a couple of choices as a member of the voting board of directors : you could vote in favor of a reevaluation of what is working and what isn't, what rules are already in place that aren't being followed that would benefit your bottom line, and what people in your company are beneficial and what people are detrimental, then you could weed out things and people who aren't a good
2 comments
Read more

Math Mammoth (TOS Crew Review)

When I discovered we had another math program on the way for review purposes, I winced.  Really?  I could really use some science, art, or history in our homeschool, sure, but math?  Um, no.  No, thank you . Well, the vendor for Math Mammoth contacted me and asked for specific information about my children (ages, math levels, problem areas).  [+ 1] We decided (yes, together , we decided! [+1] ) on Subtraction 1 for The Smallish Man-Child and Multiplication 1 for The Drama Princess . First, let me tell you what I saw when I printed Subtraction 1 for our first use: GAMES - ideas for games, suggestions, ways, materials to use (rocks, blocks, etc)... seriously, play games to teach subtraction .  Okay, now that I have been there, sure, it makes sense, but Kudos! to a maker of math curricula for directing teachers to teach subtraction by using games .  So, since my son was a pill when I had tried to teach him subtraction the one time I had attempted it, and since the purpose of
Post a Comment
Read more

How Do I Know What To Teach?

One question we all seem to ask (or at least wonder about) when we are thinking about homeschooling or we meet someone who does for the first time: how do you know what to teach?   For me, it was " How will i know what to teach? " I believe this to be a valid question because it stems from genuine curiosity and it is mixed with a touch of doubt, generally self-doubt, so it is a fair concern. Traditional Answer: buy a reputable curriculum and follow it to the letter.  As you get the "swing" of things, you will be able to supplement or skip pieces.  This is a valid answer, but it didn't fit our style around here, so.... Less Common Response: learn about whatever the kids are interested in!  What could be more fun than learning everything from the world around you rather than textbooks!?!  Also a valid answer, but it was a bit too loose for me - i am still struggling with my self-doubt too much to lean too heavily on unschooling (as this method is often called)
1 comment
Read more