5 Accounts that Will Help Your Children Succeed

In our digital age, kids can't be kept back from the internet. Instead, parents are responsible for keeping their kids safe online and for instilling good practices they can take with them into adulthood. Technology and tools available today are enabling parents to instill moral values and financial values into their children early on, striking a balance between children's freedom and parental supervision. Here are five accounts you should set up to help your kids succeed:



1. Savings Account

Open up a savings account for each child where you have joint ownership. Having this account open helps encourage them to save birthday money, allowance money and more instead of spending it right away. It gives you the chance to teach them about savings rates, ATM transactions, and of course, the value of saving money. When they become teenagers, you can monitor their use of the account so that you ensure you're instilling good spending and saving habits.

2. Budgeting Phone App

Money apps can also teach and encourage kids to save money and to earn it through hard work. For example, Bankaroo lets kids track their savings and money their parents owe them for completing chores. It also has tools that teach how to budget, set savings goals and do basic accounting.
Another useful app is iAllowance. Parents can use this app to send push notifications to your child's smartphone when chores need to be done and you can set up automatic allowance payouts when tasks are completed or defined benchmarks are reached.

3. Identity Theft Protection

The risk of identity theft shouldn't stop you from setting up financial accounts for your children. You should safeguard their personal data with identity theft protection, which is something they should learn about sooner rather than later. Identity theft protection doesn't guarantee identity theft won't occur, but it serves as insurance if it does. It also lowers the risk by monitoring accounts in your child's name so you can immediately close any accounts that you didn't create. It's important to teach your children what information is sensitive and how it can be used against them by criminals so that they understand why they shouldn't indiscriminately share personal information.

4. Anti-Theft Phone Apps

When you entrust your child with a smartphone, you're also entrusting them with all the accounts, pictures and other data stored on it. It's important to create an account for their phone on an anti-theft app that can keep data safe in the event of theft and hacking. If your child loses their phone, this sort of app can help locate it, and it can lock the phone remotely from a computer when you log into the account online and report the phone as stolen. It can also notify your child when their phone picks up on a fake Wi-Fi hotspot so that they know not to enable access to it.

5. Parental Controls

Granted, a parental control account will be in your name. Nonetheless, set it up with your child in mind, so you can decide what they're allowed and not allowed to access online. With an account like Circle or uKnowKids, you can monitor activity on your children's computers and phones, and create filters for sites and apps you don't want them to use.

Tools that Make Both Parents and Kids Happy

While it often seems like technology complicates life with kids, there are also tools out there that make safety measures like parental control and data security feasible. Having the right apps and accounts in place can help you prepare your child for adulthood while keeping them safe in the meantime.