If you’re one of those parents dreading the Back-to-School shopping season, a relatively new app designed to help teach kids about money management may be a useful addition to your shopping list.
It’s called MyDoh and they work with RBC Royal Bank. They have just done a survey of parents in the run-up to Back-to-School season that found more than 40-percent find this is a stressful process as they try to manage a budget against kids’ expectations, especially once they’ve entered the store.
But they have some tips on overcoming the anxiety. And they involve getting the kids involved in the process. It starts before shopping begins. Set a budget is the first bit of advice. Most people find they overspend because they didn’t have a budget in the first place.
When you do set a budget, the kids should be involved in discerning the difference between needs and wants. For the wants, maybe they should contribute. By using the app’s Spend-Or-Save feature, kids can split their allowance between the two streams to learn the importance of setting aside funds for future purchases.
