Pennybox educates kids and families about money and makes our users more financially thoughtful and responsible as a result.
Before starting Pennybox we spoke with hundreds of parents and asked the following questions: do you teach your kids about money and what are the results? What we learned was surprising: while all parents thought that financial education was important to the well being of their children, few actively engaged in teaching financial topics at home or felt empowered or sufficiently skilled to do so.
When I was young my parents gave me a kids book about fun ways to earn and save money. I remember reading it and appreciating the photos of coins and the stories about how the pile of coins would grow with time and compound interest. I was fascinated from the first page.
I was lucky. My parents had taken time to buy me that book and made sure I read and understood it. Pennybox wants to bring the knowledge, insights, and ideas I once learned — about how to earn and save money — and make them accessible and available to all families.
Many people have asked how Pennybox will actually work. Here is one demonstration of the app, from a user named Andy. Andy is a kid that loves playing games on his device. He gets pocket money at home for doing tasks like washing the car, feeding the dog, and keeping his room clean. Andy heard about Pennybox from his friend Emma who uses it at home with her parents to earn and learn about money. Andy downloaded Pennybox from the shared link that his friend sent him to his iPad and invited his mother and father to join. Andy sees a stream of tasks that kids around the neighbourhood are doing to earn money at home — “wow” he thought — “I can do these tasks as well”. He swipes on the app to propose a similar task to his parents, and records a video explaining why he should do it and what he thinks he should get paid. Andy’s parents agree and then Andy is allowed to complete the task. He can then collect the money into his Pennybox account.
A few very powerful lessons have happened here:
1. Andy has just exposed himself to three financial literacy concepts — a) consumer research and financial awareness — what are things worth? b) entrepreneurship and c) value of money.
2. Andy has been empowered to learn about financial literacy using a practical approach and to learn by doing.
3. Andy is rewarded with money for the successful completion of work.
We hope to keep empowering Andy and his friends. We build for all kids. Reji left his job in finance and Adam left his job at Google to start Pennybox. Many colleagues said we were crazy to leave great positions to build a product to help parents and kids learn about money. But we respectfully disagree. Developing a creative and engaging app that provides financial literacy education in a person’s early life is challenging but important work. It is this work that is now our mission.
I want to hear your stories. When’s the last time you took a risk, and pursued something you were passionate about? Did you like the outcome? Let me know in the comments below.
