Family Mint

The Crew was asked to review the Family Mint website and set up a family account. Within a few minutes of setting up our account and playing with the service, I knew that it wasn't going to work for our family right now.

Our family is still recovering financially from my husband's railroad furlough so our boys are not given a weekly allowance. When they are given their own birthday money they manage their money by themselves. Our oldest last year asked to open his own savings account to save for a car. I imagine as the younger two reach their teens, they will want to do the same. If we are able to start giving our boys an allowance, this program would actually be perfect for us to show them how a bank works and how to keep track of their spending. I think however I would let the boys open their own "banks" and manage their own money.

The program basically sets your family up as the bank with each of your children being "patrons" and setting up their own accounts to make deposits and withdrawals. The children can set goals and you can set up interest rates for them. It's a really neat program and I think if you have a really big family where you need to keep track of each child's allowance or if you manage your children's money, this program would be perfect for you.

It's the most creative way that I have seen to teach your children how the banking system works and it keeps track of their available balance the way a bank would do which I thought was really a neat feature. I even tried to "withdraw" more than my balance to see what would happen and just like a personal bank account it told me that I did not have enough funds.

The best part about this service, is that it is free to everyone. I encourage my readers to try it out and see if this program will work for you.

VISIT THE FAMILY MINT and set up your family's account.