I am a firm believer in teaching good money habits early.  I feel that most adults obtained their thoughts and values about money early in life, learning from their parents.  Although my children are young, I often think about how I will give them good financial values and have looked at many different products that help with this.  LearningCents Bank, which is a great tool for parents to teach their children about saving money.

The first thing that surprised me about the LearningCents Bank is the size - it is actually larger than I expected!  It has three different compartments - one for spending, one for saving, and one for giving.  There is a small section on the top of each compartment that can be written on with a dry erase marker - perfect for writing the amount of money in the bank, the goal being saved for, or the name of a charity.  When your child receives money, for a gift or as an allowance, you can sit down with them and allocate the money to each compartment, and then place the money in the compartment.  This is a perfect time to talk about money values, such as why they need to save, or what charity donations are for.

The LearningCents bank we received is pink and purple with sparkles, although there is also a more gender neutral version.  The package contains the bank, a dry erase marker, letter stickers that can be used to personalize the bank, and a small booklet with ideas of how to use the bank. Because the bank actually looks like it’s a toy, it will definitely attract your child’s attention!  The LearningCents bank is definitely a great tool to have when teaching your child money values!

You can find the LearningCents Bank at http://www.learningcents.com/.