App teaches children valuable financial lessons through chores

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    Hartford-New Haven, CT (WFSB) — If you’re looking to teach your kid valuable money lessons, and have them clean the house, there’s an app for that.

It’s called Busy Kid, and the goal is to get kids financially ready for the real world at an early age.

Gregg Murset is a certified financial planner, a father to six, and the CEO behind the app.

“It’s your kids first job with direct deposit,” Murset said. “This just mirrors reality closely. It’s not some video game, kind of like we’re collecting stars or stickers, this is mirroring reality, so we give them the skills they need to succeed in life.”

Eight-year-old Ajaunnie benefits from the app by doing weekly housework.

For example, taking out the trash will earn him $0.25 on the Busy Kid app.

“You click this, and this is where your chores are,” Ajaunnie explained.

His parents assign him chores and assign a money value to each one.

“We wanted to find a way to put some responsibilities on our son to teach him that he’s a member of the family,” said his father, Joseph Sciano.

The parent approves that they were done, and when pay day comes, the app transfers the money from the parent to the child.

“The neat thing about the pay day its allocated in a way to allow him to spend some money, him to save some money and him to share some money,” Sciano said.

That’s a valuable life lesson in budgeting.

The National Financial Educator’s Council said Americans lacking knowledge about personal finances costs them more than $1,200 a year.

Ajaunnie is already a good saver, he also likes to give to the homeless, and is even learning about investing, buying stock in Tesla and McDonalds.

“It sounded like a really good idea to get him understanding responsibilities and a little bit financial,” Sciano said.

“It’s a really rewarding thing to see that happen for them because really that’s setting them up for future success in life,” Murset said.

The busy kid app is free, but if your child uses the Visa spend card associated with the app, there’s a $7.99 yearly fee.

The app can be found inside the app store.

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