6 Money Management Apps Helping Teens to Be More Financially Savvy

In the United States, less than 17 percent of high school students are required to learn about personal finance to graduate. Young people should learn about the various investment options available, recognize the dangers of impulse spending, and appreciate the importance of investing in their financial future. However, the simple truth is that most teens and young adults are leaving school without vital money management skills.

In a recent study involving parents of children aged 21 or under, 46 percent of respondents graded their own financial literacy at C or lower, suggesting that many young adults are not gaining comprehensive money management advice from their parents either.

Financial literacy is a vital life skill that helps young people gain their independence and build a secure, stable future. Fortunately, numerous financial planning apps have emerged in recent years, targeting young adults to help them learn how to manage, invest, and grow their money.

1. Greenlight

Following a one-month free trial, Greenlight+Invest is an investment account for children priced at $7.98 per month. Providing an online account and debit card, Greenlight can be used as a banking app or a savings account.

Greenlight teaches teens the basics of investing, including how to buy and sell stocks and shares and ETFs. Parents must be involved with the process since the app requires a linked account from the custodian’s bank or brokerage. Parents are also required to approve their children’s trades.

This popular app confers the ability to purchase fractional shares from kid-friendly companies for as little as $1. There are no trading commissions aside from the monthly subscription fee. Greenlight provides parents with real-time notifications of all transactions, offering flexible parental controls.

2. GoHenry

Offering a website, mobile app, and debit card, GoHenry enables parents to schedule automatic allowances, set spending limits, and establish rules. The app also provides parents with access to their child’s transactions in real-time, enabling them to monitor their spending habits and track their progress toward savings goals.

Children can customize their debit card, use the easy-to-read mobile app to track their spending and savings via their mobile device, block their card should they misplace it, and unblock it if they find it again. Available from Google Play and the App Store, the platform is targeted toward a younger age range of 3 to 13 years old.

3. Acorns

Acorns is a micro-investing app that invests your spare change. It rounds up qualifying purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the difference, helping young people bank smarter, save for investment goals, and more. In just five minutes, parents can set up investment accounts for themselves and their children, helping their children to grow their financial knowledge and their savings at the same time.

Acorns provides members with access to smart portfolios. Designed by experts, these adjust automatically as the user’s money grows. Backed by leading investment companies, from CNBC to Blackrock, more than 8 million people trust Acorns across the United States and beyond.

4. FamZoo Family Finance

This personal finance app helps families develop healthy financial habits using prepaid debit cards. With each card linked through the app, FamZoo was designed for children aged 13 and older. Parents can use the app to set up a virtual bank for their children, allowing them to learn the basics of banking, saving, and investing. Moreover, FamZoo helps teenagers learn how to live within their means, give generously, save for their future, and achieve their financial goals.

5. M1 Finance

Free to download with no commissions on stock or ETF trades, M1 Finance is an excellent app that helps teens access the tools they need to build a strong financial future. Having recently launched custodial accounts, including custodial Roth IRAs for children, M1 Finance is continually expanding access to top-rated robo-advisor platforms for minors, enabling parents to manage all of their family’s investments via one easy-to-navigate app. The service also provides minors with stock news stories so they can learn about the market as they grow.

5. RoosterMoney

RoosterMoney is one of the most comprehensive family money management apps on the market today. For an $18.99 annual subscription fee per family, Rooster Plus tracks all aspects of your child’s finances, including their allowance, spending, and savings goals.

Facilitating a spend, save, and give approach while simultaneously enabling users to account for regular expenses like subscriptions, the RoosterMoney app even helps parents incentivize their children by setting personalized interest rates.

Catering to children ranging from 4 to 17 years old, RoosterMoney helps parents graduate their children through all the major milestones in terms of learning about money, from a star chart rewards system for young children to a debit card when they get older.