Teach Your Kids to Budgetting
PayPal just officially launched its program of the Student Account, a way for parents to transfer money to give to their kids – and track where it’s at every step of the way. Parents can open a PayPal account, then establish up to four PayPal sub-accounts for their kids (ages 13 and up), transfering funds to such accounts as necessary to a single or recurring basis. The kids can use the account online, or access to the funds through a MasterCard debit card to bring in the real world to spend.
Besides giving money, parents can also see where it’s going. You get full visibility into your teenager’s account balance, spending habits and budgeting skills. You can set permissions for how the account can be used, and can also require that your approval is required when a kid receives money in the account.
Parents can use a PC or cell phone to check account balances, transfer money, and get alerts when the kids’ payments exceed a certain amount or when a specified low balance is reached
This could be a good thing. You could help your kids learn how to budget and spend money wisely at an early age, and make sure their allowance isn’t being spent on beer and online gaming.
On the other hand, you could go too far on the Big Brother aspect and annoy them by prying too much into their spending history. Monitoring their transactions may be tempting, but if you put some trust in your kids’ money judgment, this could be a good way to send them out of the nest with a better sense of financial matters.
Another good device reportedly in the works : Paypal plans to integrate the money earned from teen’s work part-time job into student’s account in the reports and their own hard earned money is mixed with your own. (source : Paypal Promo)
Filed Under: Budgeting
