Help Create Money-Smart Kids with Tykoon

6:23 PM

Money is such an essential part of our everyday lives. One of the most important things we can teach our children is how to manage their money well from a young age. Figuring out how to do that in a safe and effective way can often be difficult though. With the help of Tykoon, children can interact with a creative app or online dashboard to claim tasks, manage their funds, give to charities and save towards larger goals. It is a one stop shop for financial teaching with plenty of incentive for young users and a wide range of parental controls for adults!

{Sign Up and Setup}

Sign up is extremely simple on the Tykoon site. All you have to do is put in some basic information, add your children, create allowance amounts and add percentages for spending, saving and giving. The whole signup process took me maybe 5 minutes and was very self explanatory. After you are all signed up, you have the opportunity to add tasks for your children. You can add them on a repeat basis, one time basis and can award allowance amounts, non-monetary rewards or even a one-time payment.

My favorite feature is that they do allow you to add non-monetary rewards. This works perfect for our family because we only offer payment for certain optional tasks for each child, that go above and beyond the regular chores. We give away rewards like extra TV or computer time for regular every chores themselves.

{Kid's Dashboards}

Children use their own login information that you set for them to login to their dashboards on the Tykoon site. On their dashboard they can easily see any tasks that have been assigned to them, view their balance, interact with friends that their parents have approved and so much more. There are goals that can be set for saving, as well as a section where they can look into various charities to give to. Children can earn badges from the site along the way too.

I love the feature that allows them to suggest a task. This will allow your child to become more proactive about earning money for tasks that you may normally not have assigned to them. In addition to giving to charities through the donations app on the site, your child can also create an interactive wishlist using the built in Amazon.com shop app.

{Parental Controls}

As a parent, you have full control over what your child can do or see on Tykoon.com. Parents can see at a glance where all the children stand as far as earning and meeting their goals. They can manage what friends each child is able to interact with, what tasks can be done and what categories can be viewed and liked in the store app.

{Why I Love It}

It is an interactive chore chart that teaches my boys about saving, giving and earning all in one convenient location. What is not to like about that? One of the biggest problems I had with most of my boys, was that once they had earned money and it was in their hands, they could not wait to spend it. If that dollar was in their wallet, it was just looking for a place to be spent. With Tykoon, the money is not instantly available. It is like an online bank account where they can store wishlist items and save up towards a larger purchase.

I also like the incentive the site gives them to help others and give a portion of their earnings to charities. The suggest a task feature has made them more proactive about finding further tasks they can do around the house and take the initiative towards earning more! There is also a Tykoon app that can be used on the iPad, iPhones and other devices for easy on the go management too.

{Sign Up Today}

You can sign up for free at Tykoon.com and right now there is a special where if you invite 5 friends and they signup and stay for a month, you get a $25 Amazon.com gift card. Not bad for the use of an awesome free program that can help teach your children to be money-smart!

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Tykoon. I received a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.

Kathleen

Kathleen is a homeschooling mom of four boys with a serious case of the Wanderlust bug. Her love of travel extends to her children, and has resulted in the family visiting 48 states to date, and traveling nearly a third of the year. She is the owner of LifeWith4Boys.com where you will find information on Family Travel, recipes, reviews, lifestyle and more.