Personal Finance for Kids with Moonjar Moneybox, SmartyPig and Pay Day

Just recently, I wrote about PNC Bank and Sesame Street teaming up to teach children about spending, sharing and saving money and now more institutions are following suit.  It's good to see that most people are finally realizing that teaching our young ones about money is just as important as potty-training.

In a day and age where our children our constantly bombarded with advertisements filled with messages like "you want me," "buy me," "this is the best toy ever," teaching financial consciousness is harder than ever.  Plus, truth be told, many kids get what they want, when they want it.

The whole idea of saving money is not only necessary, but it's a great life tool.  As an individual, you set goals, meet goals, and make new ones (plus, who wants to live paycheck-to-paycheck, even after retirement).  But what if you don't have wise spending habits or you don't know how to allocate the money that you have?  It becomes a major problem.

With the economy taking a toll on millions of families, there's no better time to educate our little ones on wise spending habits, setting long-term goals for saving money, and being able to learn about sharing (also known as "donating or making charitable contributions").

So what's the easiest and simplest way to teach children about money?  I have learned that kids respond well to hands-on experience.  Whether it's dropping a quarter in a jar, watching a virtual piggy bank grow or playing a game about paying bills and living within our means, they can learn about money by taking part in different activities.

Not just your ordinary piggy bank

Moonjar Moneybox, is an upgraded version of a standard piggy bank.  While it looks nothing like a pig, it's three boxes that become one (from the top it looks like a hexagon) and essentially has three goals in mind, "Save, Spend & Share."  It's very easy to use and your kids can take complete control over their goals.

To save money, you can get three glass jars and label them "Save, Share, Spend."  Get your children involved by decorating the jars as snazzy as they would like it and explaining to them what each jar represents.  With younger children, you'll need to give them a jump start by helping them set goals and teaching them where each dollar goes to.

The smart virtual piggy bank

SmartyPig is an online piggy bank where you can make individual goals such as saving for a bike that your daughter has been eyeing at Toys 'R Us or that Disney Family Vacation that you've been talking about forever but never set aside the money for.  This type of savings method implements the ""buy-now-pay-later" approach with a "save-then-spend" mentality" (copied directly from their site).

Our family has used SmartyPig for larger goals such as a college savings fund, but you can use it for any goal small and big (Read my post, Teaching Kids About Saving Money with SmartyPig).  My five year-old keeps tabs on our goals and even when the bar goes up a half a millimeter, she gets super excited.  The best part of this online piggy bank is that it's free!

Play a game that teaches your kids about money within the "Real World"

Pay Day is a fun board game that teaches your children about money (plus, it's definitely fun for the entire family).  From paying bills to making investments and even taking a loan from the bank, which you pay back on every pay day (10% or more), you begin to learn how money works in the real world.

At first, it's a little complicated if you've never seen or played the game.  I'm not good at reading instructions so I got my online video tutorial via Board Game Rules: How to Play Pay Day.  The recommended age is 8 and up and I agree with that minimum age because it's probably when they could play the game on their own.

While teaching your children about money can seem like a tough task, there are many simple and fun things you could do that will help you teach your children about money.  And remember, they watch how you spend, save and share, so make sure you lead by example.

With money, start early.  Implementing good spending, saving, and sharing habits early on can have one of the biggest impact on your child's financial future.  Just think of it as an early entrance into the world of checking accounts, savings accounts, 401Ks, bonds, mutual funds and more.

What are some things you do to teach your children about money?