Welcome to FamilyMint!  FamilyMint makes teaching your children about money and setting goals fun and easy.  Financial success and independence starts with forming the right habits and behaviors, and FamilyMint makes this simple.  How simple?  This simple!

Overview - a brief tour of the key application features:

Get Started in 3 Simple Steps

Step 1:  Create Users

Think of each of your children as a customer of your very own credit union or bank.  Each child has their own profile and unique user name so they can log in and manage their money and goals.  Click on the Create User button and fill in the required information.  You can also choose to set up their automated allowance and interest payments and frequency here or later under Account Information.  That's it.  Repeat for all your children. 

Click here to read more about automated allowance and interest.

Step 2:  Make Initial Deposit

This is where the fun really begins.  Have your children gather up all of their money in their rooms and bring it to you.  Now make the initial deposit in FamilyMint. (Some kids may initially protest, but once they see their deposits and goals, they will love seeing their money come alive for the first time.) 

We encourage you to place your kids actual cash within a youth savings account at your credit union or bank.  This way, you'll know that you'll have it when they ask for it, and you'll earn a small amount of interest on it in the mean time. 

Step 3:  Create Goals/Accounts

Ideas on how your child wants to spend their money is probably not in short supply.  How frequently do you hear "I want this" or "I need that"? 

This is their opportunity to put these ideas into writing as savings goals.  Are there things you want your child to save for such as college, charity or other long term savings goals?  This is your opportunity to have these savings goals front and center of your kids.  In fact , we recommend you start out with these goals and then let your children add their own goals. 

Click here to read more about creating goals.

Some interesting articles to share with your kids on setting goals and saving. The Secret to Setting Goals  Successful People Set Goals  How to Start a Nest Egg

That's it!  Your children are now ready to take control of their financial future.

 

Productivity Tip: access FamilyMint on the go!  Learn about FamilyMint Mobile here.

 

Additional Video Tutorials:

(After hitting Play, hit the 4-way arrow to expand to full screen.)

 

Parent Dashboard - everything you need in one location:

 The one thing you HAVE to do as a banker: approve pending transactions.

 

 

 

Child Profiles - how to set up your kids:

Be sure you set them up in the order you want to see them!

 

 

Goals - creating, editing, and deleting:

It's fast and easy.  Set up a few recommended goals and then let your child take the reins.

 

 

Kids Screens - what your child sees:

This video is linked from the child's Welcome screen.  Take a look at what FamilyMint looks like from the child's perspective.

Some basic concepts you should know:

• Kids log in themselves and manage their own money within FamilyMint.  From deposits, withdrawals, and transfers, to working towards goals they can create themselves.  FamilyMint is meant to be a place for children to learn by doing. 
• To you and your kids, this is REAL MONEY in FamilyMint.  They manage... you approve.  Every dollar in the bank is a real dollar that you owe your kids.  You are a real bank to them.
• In essence, when they hand you cash (i.e. when they make a "Deposit"), they are giving you a loan and you are in debt to them and need to pay back that debt when they ask for it (just like your bank would for you).
• To anyone outside your family, this is virtual money.  Nobody can hack in and steal anything because FamilyMint is just a tracking system. 
• FamilyMint is a mixture between a personal money management tool (such as Quicken) and an online bank. There is a period of time that things can be changed, and after that they are firm (like an online bank).   You can always see a complete history of what changed. 

Need some ideas on how to use FamilyMint?   Although there is no "right" way, we've compiled the best community driven ideas to create The FamilyMint Fundamentals.

Please add your suggestions in the Feature Requests forum.  We love your ideas!