Ever forget your child's allowance?

MoneyTrail automatically keeps track of allowances and keeps you organized.

Every Dollar Counts!

Teach your child to keep track of their money. It reduces impulse spending.

Finances shouldn't cause headaches!

Practicing money skills when young can lead to stress-free, responsible finances as an adult.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Guest Blog for the Johns Creek Patch

This week I was a guest blogger for the Johns Creek Patch. I wrote about allowing kids to spend their money even if they make mistakes with it. Mistakes can be learning opportunities. Visit the Johns Creek Patch to read the full article.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

MoneyTrail Co-Hosts #FinLitChat May 18 – Family Finances!


I have been invited to co-host a tweet chat about Family Finances on Wednesday, May 18th at 1:00 pm EST with FinLitTV.  FinLitTV.com is a website dedicated to making financial literacy possible.  During our chat, we are going to jump head first into the world of kids, teens and money!  I hope you will join us.


Hosts & Co-Hosts: @FinLitTV and   @MoneyTrailNet

What: Family Finances with MoneyTrail
When: 1pm – 2pm eastern Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Where: #FinLitChat hashtag on Twitter
How: Tweetchat, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Tweetgrid are the tools we suggest to optimize your twitter chat experience


Tips for Participating in a Twitter Chat:
  • Show up at 1pm at the #FinLitChat hashtag on twitter
  • Add the #FinLitChat hashtag to all of your tweets
  • Follow @FinLitTV and the Co-Host twitter ~ the topics and chat moderation will be coming from these twitter accounts
  • @FinLitTV will be tweeting questions to generate conversation – answer the questions, share your financial literacy experience, ReTweet your favorite answers & meet new tweeps!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Pam's Picks: Teachable Money Moments with Legos, Teachers and Toilets!





Each week, I spend a lot of time reading new articles and blogs about kids, teens, money and financial literacy.  I'll even pop over to YouTube and see what's going on over there. In "Pam's Picks", I will share some great articles and videos with you.




Most of the time, I think of a teachable moment as being that precise moment in time when you have the opportunity to connect a child with a new concept.  However, this week, I broadened my perception of teachable moments to include those times when we, as adults, reflect upon prior events and realize what we have learned from those events.   Here are two articles about teachable moments with money and one funny little video to make us smile!

The Official Launch of MoneyTrail


Sometimes I just need to toot my own horn and share our celebrations with you.  Today is one of those days!  As of today… (drumroll, please), MoneyTrail is officially launched!  We have taken the “beta” off of our logo and are no longer in a public beta testing format.  Many thanks go to the families who have helped us along the way.  The initial public response to MoneyTrail has far exceeded our expectations and we are thrilled to continue on the journey of enabling kids and teens to manage their own money.



Friday, May 6, 2011

My Mom, Lady Bugs and Entrepreneurship?


Mother’s Day is just a few days away and it has me thinking, of course, about my mother.  Take a look at the lovely photo to the left.  Yup…that’s my mother and me at the grand opening of her craft store.  (I’m the one in the “Little House on the Prairie” dress!)  I believe I was about four years old at the time.  


Today we would call my mom an entrepreneur or more recently, a “mompreneur”.  She was, and still is, an incredibly crafty person.  She can sew, knit, crochet and quilt.  When she was a mother of two young children in the early 1970’s, she took her skills and passions and used them to open her own business.   It was most definitely a family business.  My dad made jewelry to sell and helped with the administrative end of the business when he wasn’t at his “real” job.  When my brother and I were out of school, we were right there in the store with my mom.  I remember creating my imaginary store under the tables with my Fisher Price cash register, sneaking sips of my mom’s coffee and once, falling in a nearby creek.  Thankfully, my big brother was around to pull me out of the water!

Perhaps my fondest memory involved lady bugs and magnets.  When I was about 7 years old, I decided that I was going into the refrigerator magnet business.  I took red and black pompoms, black beads and a couple of wiggly eyes.  I glued them together, stuck a magnet on the bottom and created what I thought was the most beautiful lady bug magnet that ever existed.  My mother stuck them on a metal cookie sheet and displayed them in her store, right alongside of her items.  She even submitted them to a consignment craft store a few hours away from our hometown. 

Well…I didn’t make a fortune on my homemade lady bug magnets.  In fact, the consignment store turned them down and just a few sold in our store (I think the ladies who bought them were my grandmother’s friends).  But the lessons I learned were invaluable.  I learned that pride and accomplishment go hand in hand with hard work and persistence.  I learned that even a kid can try out a business adventure.  And, most importantly, I learned that even though some people may not like or appreciate what you have done, you can still learn from it and keep moving forward.  It was the blossoming of an inner strength that I still carry with me today.

I am sure it would have been easier for my Mom to simply put the ladybug on her refrigerator and pat me on the head.  But she encouraged and enabled me to try to take it to the next level.  Thanks, Mama, for letting me make those little lady bugs.


Thursday, May 5, 2011

Pam's Picks: Financial Literacy Experts and Bill Cosby




Each week, I spend a lot of time reading new articles and blogs about kids, teens, money and financial literacy.  I'll even pop over to YouTube and see what's going on over there. In "Pam's Picks", I will share some great articles and videos with you.