“Real life application is important for student learning. The FamilyMint Money Management Certification program gave my fifth grade students practical experience using a financial program which connected with the mathematic concepts that they learn in the classroom. This program provides a financial unit that is clear and user-friendly.

My students gained a greater knowledge of financial literacy and enjoyed the lessons in FamilyMint. They learned to set goals for using their earnings. They learned about interest. And among many other money concepts, my students learned about working for their money. Almost every student reached a financial goal for an item that they wanted to purchase and they were so proud of themselves.

Their parents gave an overwhelmingly positive response to the FamilyMint program as well. Many shared that they, too, gained some new financial literacy. And most commented on the need for a program like this to be more a part of their children’s curriculum.

I highly recommend this program for later elementary students, because the lessons are so valuable. FamilyMint enhanced my math curriculum without much extra effort or time out of daily instruction. FamilyMint provides a program that help us educators create a generation that is more financial literate. ”

“Our favorite part of the workbook was the section on goal setting. Since reaching goals is the primary motivation behind seeking monetary security, I think this is really the key to get children committed to learning the ins and outs of money management. One of my favorite applications for the Money Management Certification Program was it’s use to help fulfill the requirements for the Boy Scouts of America Personal Management merit badge. The personal management badge requires documentation illustrating a scout’s ability to set goals, budget, and understand several principles of money management. Of note, the Personal Management badge is one of 21 merit badges that must be earned to fulfill the requirements to become an Eagle Scout.”

“Knowing that financial literacy takes time, FamilyMint begins by giving children the knowledge they need to know what to do, but goes beyond that by giving opportunity for your child to practice these skills and then develop lifelong RIGHT habits. We really LOVE the FamilyMint Program. It is simple to use, and is developing in my children lifelong RIGHT habits of handling money. I love that it is an affordable program and that it is being recognized as an exceptional program.”

“Looking forward to the book! We are a homeschool family, and I believe that this will be a great addition to our “life skills” and “math” curriculum! Normally, we wouldn’t really go in depth over this till High School, but this will be a GREAT tool for them to get their feet wet. We’ve already used your online program for a couple years, and they love watching their money grow and setting goals. The print material will be a great addition to your already much needed program. ”

“This program is great! Very easy to understand, it also has a lot of fun and interesting facts and examples. This is beneficial not only for kids but also adults as we often don’t know where to begin, particularly in the area of goals. I had never thought much about how to effectively teach my kids to be money smart and I think you have hit the nail on the head. Whether tracking nickels and dimes or thousands of dollars it is an excellent and easy system to understand. Using the software or using the workbook... either way I love FamilyMint!”

“Teaching personal finance has taught me that achieving financial goals is all about action. To learn these skills at a young age helps set a solid foundation for a successful financial future. No program that I’ve come across does this better than FamilyMint!”

“This is terrific! I love the idea of this, as well as what you’ve provided. It looks great.”

“Wowowowowow!!! This is a well researched workbook that incorporates appropriate and solid financial concepts in a real world enjoyable way.”

“Recently, the boys have become very interested in an on-line game. The game itself was free, but there were features you could purchase. The boys wanted to spend some of their money on this game. I didn’t want them to spend their hard-earned money on a virtual item. We told them that we did not think it was a wise use of their money. Because we try to let them manage their own money, they were allowed to spend some of their money on this on-line game. THEN we started using FamilyMint. And the boys’ eyes were opened like never before!

On their FamilyMint accounts, the boys have to enter withdrawals when they want to spend their money. Every two weeks, their allowance is automatically added to their accounts by FamilyMint. Then they must go in and move their tithe and savings money into those accounts which we set up for them. After that, the money left is theirs to spend. When the boys want to spend money, they make a withdrawal from the FamilyMint account and I go into the master account and approve it. But as they are making these withdrawals, the boys can see the money that has been moved into and out of their accounts over the past few weeks. That’s when the light bulb lit.

After a day of making another withdrawal to “buy” something on this virtual game, our sons had a conference. They came down to our bedroom late one evening and announced that they were giving up the virtual game for good. Now, I was not upset by this at all. I prayed that their attraction to this game would be broken. But I was confused. Just that day the boys were playing their game and chatting giddily about it. Now, suddenly, they were giving up the game altogether. “Why?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”

”I realized how much money I was spending.” My oldest explained. It was FamilyMint! Because the boys were seeing where their money was going on Family Mint, they were quickly becoming more aware of what money they had! “If I had all that money I spent...I’d have a lot of money!” My son continued.

Since canceling their on-line accounts on this game, the boys have set different savings goals on their FamilyMint accounts. They can move their money directly into these savings accounts from their open money. And that is why I am a fan of FamilyMint. After years of me preaching, “Spend your money wisely.” “Don’t buy that junk.” “Think about where you are spending your money!” FamilyMint SHOWED the boys exactly all those things in the matter of a few weeks.”

“Yikes! We LOVE family mint - the website is so easy for my kids to use, big plus. The fact that it does automatically what I haven’t been able to find the time to organize on my own. I’ve been meaning to set up a spreadsheet like this for several years now. This has a much nicer format for all of us and includes the goal setting option and pays interest and does matching of funds. My teenager has control of her money, but I don’t have to drive to bank! I love how my kids can feel serious about handling their money. I take it and then put it in their real bank account so they earn double interest from me and the bank. I love Family Mint!! It has been the best invention on the Internet since ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has helped in many ways, but one of the most unexpected is in discipline. I now have an easy way to levy fines for behavior that I wish to correct and it has become very effective. Flexibility to set it up so that it works for me instead of me having to work with it. I love the ability to make automatic allowance each week instead of having to remember to do it myself. Also I love being able to lock certain accounts. I value that it is easy to use and change. Thank you for creating this for us!”

“The best tool is the one you use. I loved the Larry Burkett resources, but they sit on my shelf...dusty. FamilyMint “forces” conversations about money and proper handling of it EVERY SINGLE WEEK.”

“There is a great on line tool out there that gets your kids away from the silly piggy banks and stashes of money in dress up purses! The kids manage it themselves and can start to see how savings - and spending- effect their goals!”

“I started homeschooling 8 years ago and this is the first year I have concentrated on how the banking system works. I recently saw FamilyMint on Twitter. We provide commission—not allowance—and most of the related work entails each sibling working with the other. The biggest problem was my 10 and 11 year olds were having problems keeping track of their money. My 10 year old girl started a face painting business and now keeps track of everything in FamilyMint. My 11 year old boy is keeping track of everything now as well. I love FamilyMint and I love that I don’t have to do it all myself!”

“I am afraid that in the past we have probably short changed the kids and ourselves - forgetting to pay them back and slacking on them paying us back. This puts an end to all of that.”

“We have always had our children place their money into divided plastic piggy banks. The banks have 3 separate sections labeled “Save, Spend, and Give.” Since their money was already organized in this conscientious way, I was initially uncertain if keeping Family Mint accounts was going to provide any new motivation or insights for the kids. Boy, was I wrong!

I think the single greatest benefit thus far is that the kids can clearly see, at any given time, exactly how much money they have in each category. Before, they just saw stacks of change and wadded up dollar bills inside the piggy bank divisions, but there was no concrete amount attached to each. I had never realized how this was hampering them from making good plans for their funds. How can they save for a specific goal when they don’t know how much they’ve accumulated so far? Or If they decide to take out some cash to purchase a coveted item, do they realize how this impacts their bottom line?

Since logging my kids into their Family Mint accounts and showing them the ropes, I’ve already seen great results. Last week while we were out shopping, my 7 year old wanted to purchase a toy gun. Since he knew exactly how much money was in spending account, he was able to quickly evaluate the purchase and make his decision. As soon as we arrived back home, he raced to the computer to log in to his account and enter his withdrawal. And he made it very clear that he wanted to do it by himself!

A few days later, my 13 year old daughter saw an outfit that she really liked at the store. I told her that I was not going to purchase it for her, but she was free to buy it for herself if she would like. Immediately, she turned to me and said, “Well, I can’t. Because I already bought two things this month, and I only have $11.76 left in my spending account. I’m going to have to get some more babysitting jobs so I can earn the money.”

There is a lot of power in taking an abstract concept like finances, and making it visual. The progress bars are a key part of the kids accounts as they make it easy for even my 7 year old to know at a glance what is happening with his money. Along with the obvious values of visually managing their money, they have also really enjoyed being able to personalize their accounts with pictures and color changes. I’m now very confident that Family Mint is going to be instrumental in helping my children to tell their money where to go, instead of asking where it went!

Thank you for this wonderful program!”

“After watching the introductory videos, I was able to set up accounts for the children very easily, and the children had no difficulty beginning to play with the program. They loved personalizing pictures for their accounts.

Our children have savings accounts at the real bank, so we entered that amount in ‘general savings’ in FamilyMint. The little ones also have piggy banks, so we called that account ‘piggy bank’. Our Little Misses have almost no income except for the tooth fairy and birthday money, and when asked about financial goals, Miss 7 said she wanted to buy a pair of sunglasses from the dollar store. Smile. I’m not about to encourage an obsession with money or stuff by getting them to set goals for other purchases. So every time they make a bit of money, they can enter it in their account, and if they want to buy something, they can withdraw it from the piggy bank account as well as from their piggy bank itself. We also took them to their real bank to deposit some of their piggy bank money—patient teller, counting out so many pennies!—and transferred the money in their Family Mint account from their ‘piggy bank’ account to their ‘general savings’ account. The Little Misses have fun with this and are starting to understand what it is all about.

FamilyMint is very adaptable. You can use it as intended, to teach your children about money. Or you can use it as a learning tool in a completely different way.

That is what Miss 9 did, after watching Disney’s Robin Hood for the first time in her life. We set up an account for Robin Hood, and used the goal categories as people. So there was one category for Robin Hood, one for the sheriff, one for the poor, and one for Prince John. Step by step she went through the story. For example, she transferred money from Prince John to Robin Hood after the carriage scene (transaction description: stealing from the rich to feed the poor), and from the poor to the sheriff (transaction description: collecting taxes), and she even let the poor lay up a bit of money (transaction description: scrimping and saving). At the end Prince John had nothing, and the poor had it all. Yippee! Miss 9 wants to make a category for King Richard as well, so that he can have some money and the story can continue. I’m wondering what King Richard will do with his money, and if Robin Hood will have anything more to do.

This application of the program is really exciting me. Suddenly there are so many options! For example, I think Family Mint would be a great tool for my teens to analyse the next Canadian budget. As the old saying goes, “Money makes the world go round,” and many current and historical events lend themselves to in-depth financial analysis. FamilyMint can easily be tweaked for this purpose.”

“Oh how I wish we had had this with the older kids! We had boxes for them to divide their money and because of “accidents” money would be misplaced etc. For our two youngest 12 and 10 this is a lifesaver. The best part is the automatic allowance scheduler, now we don’t have to remember when we last paid them! We have a budding lawyer in the 10 yr old and he could “always remember”, but not accurately LOL! They have both started to think ahead to activities they want money for, such as birthdays coming up, or trips to the boardwalk. They love coming home from shopping and updating their accounts, we love not having to dole out cash that gets easily misplaced!”

“FamilyMint is an excellent way to train children in the art of financial planning. It’s also a good way to get Mommy to think about balancing her own checkbook once in a while too. FamilyMint has a very nice interface and is relatively easy to use. I had a few minor mysteries, but the customer support at FamilyMint was very helpful and quick to answer my questions.”

“My daughter was thrilled by the entire concept. She eagerly set up several goals and started planning ways to earn more money to put toward her goals. I think this is a great idea that will be very useful in our home for teaching money management.”

““FamilyMint is a nice way to plan out my money and save for really nice things. I think all kids should give it a try.” — Liz E. -11 years old. “This is cool!” — Alex E. -6 years old. “Using FamilyMint has led into some great family discussions about money. It’s also been handy in the store. I can pull it up on my smartphone for some teachable moments. —Alex and Liz’s Mom.”

“We have enjoyed using FamilyMint in our homeschool curriculum for the last couple of years. It has been very beneficial to our children. They are very financially savvy compared to their peers, all mainly due to FamilyMint.”

“FamilyMint has been a tool our family has used to teach our children what we had always wanted to teach them about tithing and managing their money. We had been unsuccessful at being consistent with all other methods we had tried. But FamilyMint makes automatic deposits and has an automatic savings plan to help us stay consistent.”

“FamilyMint is a great way for the kids to learn the value of a dollar. Instead of having to fight with my kids about getting something, I ask if they have the money in their account.”

“You won’t have to worry about remembering to give the kids their allowance, PLUS you keep track of how they spend their money so you can use it as a teaching tool. Finally, it completely eliminates the “Mama & Papa are an endless source of money.” Either the money they want to spend is in FamilyMint or not. If they don’t have it, they must save.”

“This is a very family friendly, no hassle way of keeping up with our children’s money. The kids have a deep interest in keeping up with where there money will be spent and how much more they can “earn.” There are no more loose bills belonging to “who knows who” lying around because they immediately want to deposit their money into their accounts.”

“FamilyMint is helping my children so much to SEE the reward of their work (getting paid an allowance) and teaching them how to manage their money. Watching their savings grow is very motivating! And it makes them feel so grown up to be able to access their own account on the computer just like we do ours.”

“In my personal opinion and years of experience in the Financial Services Business, it will pay their children 110% of what they could otherwise give them in any other financial guidance. It will help change their children’s mindset and way of thinking about money rather than being just a savings vehicle. It is about changing mindset and way of thinking by doing and seeing.”

“Really changes the way kids view money!”

“It is an AWESOME way to teach kids about saving money!”

“It’s a great way for kids to learn how to keep track of their own money and develop savings plans, both of which are great skills to have BEFORE they leave home, not just AFTER.”

“If parents take a few minutes up front they will be turning out “Money Smart Kids”. Parents must remember: Today’s Children are Tomorrow’s Adults!”

“... really gives a visual picture of where your kids’ money is going. It’s a great teaching tool. We love Dave Ramsey and this really works well with what we’re already teaching our kids.”

“It is a great way for your kids to visualize how much money they have and see the savings toward a goal mount up. It is also a great way for them to see if they don’t have enough money for something and there is no more running to Mom with exclamations of “I lost my money! I know it is in my room, but I can’t find it!” We really enjoy Family Mint.”

“It’s a great program that lets kids “see” their goals and progress, and makes the allowance thing SO much easier for parents.”

“I would praise its value in teaching children the process of deciding what’s important and then making an organized plan to save money for those important things. FamilyMint helps motivate children to save and encourages many good discussions of how to use the money they save.”

“Family Mint is a great tool to help your kids manage their money and save for specific things they want. They can set their own goals and allocate the money accordingly. You can pay them interest, if you like, and they get to watch their money grow. Your children will feel empowered, and you get less static about purchases.”

“Good software for children to learn about saving money and setting goals for things that they want to attain. It helps them take responsibility in allocating funds to specific accounts and lets them see visually their progress and the length of time it will take for them to attain their goal and changes that they may have to make if they want to attain goal faster. ”

“We were just made aware of your online training tool: Familymint.com by a friend of ours. This is truly a God sent gift for our family. I home school two 8 year-old boys & this is just the perfect thing for them - and I can see that it will serve us well for years to come.”

“I am a 5th grade teacher at Burns Park Elementary in Ann Arbor Michigan, and had the pleasure of using Family Mint with my 5th graders. I used it as a way for each child to create academic and social goals for themselves. We had whole class goals as well as individual goals. Some examples of class goals were: • Behaving well in specials classes. • Keeping the classroom clean. Some examples of student personal goals were: • Reading a certain amount. • Turning in homework. • Not “gossiping” about others. Right off the bat, the students loved it for a variety of reasons. First off, they got to make a personal profile with a variety of pictures to represent THEM. Secondly, they got to track their goals as they were met (or not met), so they could see in front of them how far away they were from achieving what they wanted. They also loved trying to get a lot of money for free (but the banker wasn’t fooled :-)). From a teacher’s standpoint, I saw the entire class striving for real goals which they may not have paid attention to as much. I saw confidence growing. I saw some children pushing hard and wanting to achieve, and others pushing hard for the intrinsic value. It helped define goals. My room was cleaner too! This program also allowed the students to get used to the world of finance in an introductory way, noticing their transactions and totals as they went. I would highly recommend this program. The company cares. They take care of you. The program is a definite teaching tool. Kids love it.”

“Last night (unfortunately too close to bed time to play around much) Christie and I set up our bank and an initial allowance so we could have our first conversations about saving. You have probably heard this from others, but her first question to me was, “What is interest?” It felt pretty good to have that kind of opening. This is a good thing FamilyMint is doing. I only regret that I did not start sooner. This will help me be a better dad.”

“I love this program more and more every week! The fact that my kids have become very careful about their spending and smart about their decision making skills makes it one of the best tools we use to teach ever.”

“Emily was thrilled by the entire concept. She eagerly set up several goals and started planning ways to earn more money to put toward her goals. I think this is a great idea that will be very useful in our home for teaching money management.”

“It’s the most creative way that I have seen to teach your children how the banking system works and it keeps track of their available balance the way a bank would do which I thought was really a neat feature. I even tried to “withdraw” more than my balance to see what would happen and just like a personal bank account it told me that I did not have enough funds. ”

“FamilyMint is an excellent way to train children in the art of financial planning. It’s also a good way to get Mommy to think about balancing her own checkbook once in a while too.”

“The first thing we did while creating an account, was to name our bank. Then we created individual user accounts for each child. To make this fun, we gifted each child by making a $5 deposit. Here’s the kicker ~ we require a $5 minimum balance at Good Sense Bank (just like many bank accounts do). Each child was eager to deposit all their money and create goals and then start transferring their money into savings accounts for each goal.

What makes this work is that every dollar in the bank is a real dollar that you owe your kids. When they hand you cash (make a deposit), you owe them that money and need to pay it back when they ask for it (just like a bank). But, you are not really depositing the money online ~ Family Mint is just a tracking system.

Each child was able to pick a different icon to represent their account (which is funny because I have an icon on my online bank account, too).

Instead of using the allowance feature, we gave each child a monthly “salary” for doing their chores. On the first of the month, each child gets half his age in wages for the month. I then took their salary and divided it by 30. Each day that their chores are not complete, I withdraw 1/30 of their salary from a special account. So, for Jordan, who is 13, his salary is $6.50 a month. His daily penalty for not doing his chores is 22 cents. At the end of the month, what ever he has left will be transferred into his general savings account to be used. Then from the wages he receives, he will transfer 10% into a tithing account.

Dylan’s goal is to keep 100% of his salary in his account. As he loses money for not doing chores (just as he would lose money for not working in real life) he will see the blue bar start to fall. (Note that I locked the account so that money cannot be transferred until it is unlocked). I think this will visually help him to see how he is doing. I may even offer extra work for the kids to earn some extra money. So far, all the boys are doing well with keeping up with their chores and I think this is a fun system for them.”

“With 6 kids, it has been a challenge to find an organized way of handling the money they received as gifts, babysitting or for chores around the house. Initially, they each wanted to hold onto all of their money. The little ones would lose it around the house when they went to count it and forgot to put it away. The older ones put it in their wallets or purses but when one wallet went missing with the money in it, they all finally allowed me to give them a notebook to keep a record after they gave us the money for safekeeping. I had no idea how much each child had accumulated which could put a real dent in the family monthly budget when one of them wanted to buy something. The kids, especially the older ones, did a decent job of keeping track of how much they had and what they were saving for but it was very disorganized at times and sometimes they would lose their record book.

When we started using FamilyMint, it did take us a few weeks to get used to this new way of organizing the kids’ money. But I have to say, I LOVE IT and so do the kids. My husband and I now know exactly how much each child has in his or her account and we see clearly how much money we owe each of them (Quite a bit more than I expected but no more surprises messing up the monthly budget.) The kids love signing into their own account and having a clear visual of how much money they have and how they are progressing toward their goals. I really like the flexibility to use it in a way that works best for our family and I like the ability to match funds toward their goals.

It has definitely made a positive difference in our lives. Thank you!! We look forward to using for years to come.”