Teaching your kids to manage their own money is one of the greatest gifts you could ever give them. Unless they learn responsible money management at home — they just won't learn them. Grade schools and high schools aren't teaching thrifty money management skills. And they definitely won't learn it in college (where massive loans are the norm). The teaching of practical life skills are sorely lacking in our education system. So if you want your kids to learn to handle money wisely, you've got to teach them. But don't worry, we've created and fine-tuned a workable and flexible system for you to use.

The Money Smart Kids Financial Training Kit is kid tested. Since 1995 our kids and hundreds of others have been the "test market" for this system. (Watch a video about the system at the bottom of this page)

Our system teaches basic money management skills while encouraging good attitudes about chores and school. Younger kids divide their earnings into three different envelopes for: Giving, Saving and Spending.

We teach the older kids to use a portion of their "earnings" to purchase their own clothes and eventually other things like: summer camps, sports and auto insurance. This completely eliminates the "gimmes" for $100 sneakers and other things that kids typically "hit-up" their parents for. The system is flexible enough to be tailored to the specific habits that you want to reinforce with your kids.

Abbey (left), at age 9, loves to save, give and of course spend the money she has earned.
 

The kit includes:

- 3 Tyvek Envelopes with printed ledgers
- MoneySmart Kids Overview and Instructions
- Point Chart / Time Card
- "Copyable" Ledger cover
- Sample Chore list (one we used for our kids)

The Money Smart Kids Kit and envelopes are suitable for children ages 8 and up. To use the envelopes, kids need to be able to add, subtract and use decimals. If you have children who are younger, consider buying the training kit and instructions, but also purchasing a three-compartment bank - this is what we used with our younger kids (click here).

Cost:

- MoneySmart Kids Kit $15 (US) per kit (Plus $2 S&H)
- Additional set of 3 Envelopes (buy one extra set for every 
  additional child using the system) $5 (US) plus $1 S&H

Watch a video about our kids and money system.
This interview was aired on our local ABC affiliate in Phoenix.

A perfect companion to the MoneySmart Kids Kit is our
Teaching Kids About Money, Isn't Kids' Stuff Seminar Audio Kit.

In this live 90 minute recording, you’ll not only learn
how we developed and use our kids and money system,
but you’ll even hear from four of our five kids
as the audience peppers them with questions.

Some of the topics covered include:

• How young can you start teaching your kids to handle money?
• An approach to chores that develops a strong work ethic.
• Teaching kids to make smart purchases
• How to deal with hi-tech gizmos and their cost
• How to make allowance more like the real world.
• Character building activities that can land college scholarships.
• Audience questions answered by the Economides kids.

Listen to some audio excerpts