Sunday, March 24, 2013

FamilyMint...Revisited

About three years ago, I did a review of FamilyMint's free online resources. You can read all about that here. Today, I am revisiting them with the addition of their Money Management Certification Program. The cover of the workbook calls it, "A complete step-by-step program for learning money management."

The program is designed to take two months for kids ages 10 and up. I used this with my 14yo (8th grader). The workbook includes access to their online tools, and contains assignments that can utilize them. It is not required, however, and the workbook can be completely stand alone.

My son did not want to take 2 months to get it done. He completed the basic exercises in the workbook in about two weeks. The program is designed to be very realistic with goal setting and budgeting using their real finances. We do not really give our kids a regular allowance. We do sometimes pay them for odd jobs, but really the only time they get any real money is at birthdays or other holidays. For him, the program was much more abstract. I think that makes is much more difficult to make an impact. The workbook did still have some good exercises in check writing skills, figuring out interest, and writing a budget. The one thing I would prefer when talking about budgeting is at least a mention on the importance of tithing. That is something I never really understood until about 2 years ago. I really want to stress that importance to my kids now so they don't have to learn the hard way like I did. Otherwise, all the information contained in the workbook is very good.

Right now the workbook is selling for $29.99. That includes a lifetime membership to FamilyMint Premium which is normally $25/year. You can find out more about what that includes here. Again, I see the value in the online program for a child who regularly receives money. For mine, it is not really relevant and I always forget to use it when they actually do get money. You can also get additional workbooks at 50% off.

I received the program free in exchange for my honest review, but received no other compensation.

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