FamZoo by the numbers in 2021.
Have you ever wondered how other families use FamZoo?
Here’s a breakdown based on our current cardholders as 2021 comes to a close.
37.7% of families set up automated allowances.
Not surprisingly, allowance is one of our most popular features. It’s simple and effective.
If you’re looking for tips to transform allowance from an underappreciated entitlement into an educational budget, see my tips here: Fix The Way You’re Doing Your Kid’s Allowance.
39.8% of families create chore charts.
This one surprised me. I expected chore charts to be considerably less popular than allowances. Digging a bit deeper, I found that only 25.3% of families have a chore chart with a repeating item. The implication: there’s plenty of interest in chore charts, but many families struggle to set them up successfully. Be sure to check out our chore chart help section.
If you’re like I was and find monitoring chore completion in your busy family too tedious, consider the simpler approach of an allowance coupled with a chore penalty chart instead. It’s described here.
18.6% of families split allowance or chore payments.
Separating funds into multiple purpose-driven accounts is an important personal finance skill to master. See Split happens, Kids learn for details.
For those parents splitting chore or allowance payments between multiple sub-accounts, the average allocations between high level categories are 60.8% to spending, 30.2% to savings, and 9.0% to charitable giving.
18.8% of families reward kids with parent-paid interest.
I want every child to experience the power of compound interest in a compelling way. You can do that easily with parent paid compound interest. I make my case for the technique in this article: Why a Traditional Bank Savings Account Doesn’t Teach Your Kid How to Save.
18.5% of families have reimbursed an expense.
Reimbursements are an excellent way to teach kids to appreciate what everyday items cost while building the habit of maintaining a healthy cushion in their accounts. Read how reimbursements work here.
17.6% of families turn on activity alerts.
This one needs to improve dramatically in 2022!
Activity alerts help kids stay on budget, nip fraud at the bud, maintain parental peace of mind, catch unused or unwanted subscription charges, and stimulate thoughtful family money conversations. For details, see 5 Reasons To Turn Card Activity Alerts On For Your Kids.
4% of families assess automatic debits.
With automatic debits, you can charge kids for a share of a family-wide expense, like a cell phone plan, Netflix, or Amazon Prime. I used automatic debits as a way for my kids to practice planning for monthly bills and to debunk any misconceptions they might have about certain critical services being somehow magically free.
If you’re looking for a few slam dunks to pad your New Year’s resolution stats, I see lots of fertile ground above.
What new money lesson will you teach your kid in 2022?
Dear Bill...
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Best to you and your family,
Bill
Founder, FamZoo.com
