A few days ago someone asked me why I made Bomad. My initial response was that I wanted to solve my “kids money admin” problem. Existing ways of doing it (cash, child bank accounts, spreadsheet tracking, etc) are just too painful. I couldn’t find an app that did a proper job of it, so I decided to make my own.
But upon further reflection, I realized that I could make the admin problem go away by just putting money gifts from family into a separate bank account and not allowing my kids to spend it. I could cancel their allowances and just decide what they need and buy it for them. Then when they turn 18, I could just give the money to them. Easy peasy. So why don’t I just do that?
Well, because they wouldn't LEARN anything that way. It’s only through thinking about money, spending it, saving it, etc, etc that kids really start to understand it. And that’s what I want for them. The admin problem only exists because I want them to learn about money!
However, I'm careful not to take the learning angle too far. If my daughter wanted to save up for a Coach handbag instead of some Roblox shares, I would let her. It is her money, after all. And if she has no interest in achieving a particular savings goal, she’s unlikely to learn anything in the process. She might even develop negative associations with saving!
Of course, I would suggest the Roblox shares as a follow-on goal after she buys the handbag. I'll explain to her that shares will likely be worth more in a year’s time, while fashion accessories will be worth less. But I'll let her make the final decision.
In Bomad, you can easily create a savings goal, but you can also track the value of “external” items like shares by adding an “external account”. For now you will need to update the balance on the external account manually when it changes, but in future we will automate this.
We have, however, made an experimental feature that fetches an amount from a Google spreadsheet daily. This way you can display the updated value of a share portfolio, for example. If anyone is interested in this, please contact me (see below).
As I write this, I realize that there's more I could do in guiding my own kids, especially when it comes to investments. That’s okay, because the standard isn’t perfection. We all have busy lives and juggle many priorities. We do the best we can with what we’ve got. Bomad has made educating my kids about money a lot easier, and I hope it does the same for yours.
