FamZoo News

3 smart moves for summer paychecks.

1. Do direct deposit.

John just asked:

“My 15 year old son is about to start a summer job with a direct deposit option for his paycheck. Is there a way to direct deposit into his FamZoo account?”

Yes, indeed! That’s what my teens did for their summer jobs.

Each FamZoo card has its own routing and account numbers for direct deposit. Parents can find the numbers on the Card Information screen. From the Accounts screen, just click or tap on the balance of the desired card to drill down to its Transactions screen. From there, you’ll see the Card Information link. It’s in the left hand sidebar under the Actions section if you’re on a laptop/desktop browser. It’s in the mobile menu in the upper right corner if you’re using the app.

If the employer insists on a physical direct deposit slip, contact us. We can send you a printable PDF.

2. Send it to savings.

Pro Tip: Add a separate savings card for your teen, and send the paychecks there instead.

To move money from saving to spending, your teen can issue a transfer request for your quick approval. Just that little extra step — including filling out the Reason field — does wonders for damping impulse spending.

As a powerful incentive to save, sweeten the pot by setting an aggressive parent-paid interest rate on the savings card. My teen gets 0.16% every week. He pulled in $1.19 last Thursday. Easy money!

Lastly, turn on activity alerts for positive reinforcement. Your teen will receive a motivating text message every time the interest payment lands. Cha-ching.

3. Rev up the Roth.

Super Pro Tip: At the end of the Summer, open up a Roth IRA account for your teen and start a “Family 401(k)”. What’s a Family 401(k)? It’s the smartest financial move I ever made for my 5 teens.

See what, how, and why HERE.

It takes a zoo.

Recently in the FamZoo parent community:

• David asked whether merchants will accept his pre-teen daughter’s FamZoo card when it only has her first name printed on it in the label line beneath David’s full name. 💳
• Bill (hey, that’s me!) shared one of his favorite FamZoo features. ↩️
• Dametra asked how to close out a card without closing the whole account. 🚫

Got an experience or tip to share? A question?

JOIN THE GROUP

Small but deadly.

If you find yourself approving too many saving-to-spending transfer requests this summer, pass along this classic from Benjamin Franklin:

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”

Help you kids slow their spending roll.

🙏 A big THANK YOU to...

• Ameera David — of WXYZ-TV in Detroit for featuring us in a local ABC news segment about teaching financial literacy to kids this summer. I’m the one in the orange zoo office with the pawprints and the zebra curtains. 🦓 See the clip here.
• Matt Sweeney — for sharing his family’s experiences in the WXYZ-TV segment after responding to Ameera’s post in our parent group.
• Egmech — for spreading the FamZoo love on the App Store with this review: “Have used this app for years. I use this app to pay my kids allowance and for them to gain experience using a debit card. Any time over my time using this app I have had a question or concern, Bill will personally call me and get to the bottom of any issue. Very rare to have this type of personal communication with companies today. I highly recommend FamZoo. Great company with great support.”

  Since we don’t advertise, your positive reviews on Facebook and the app stores are greatly appreciated!

Dear Bill...

Got a question, comment, concern, bug report, suggestion?

I’m no robot, just an everyday dad on a youth financial literacy mission. Hit reply, and I’ll respond.

Or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Best to you and your family,
Bill

Founder, FamZoo.com