The Art of Allowance Podcast | Parenting | Families | Money Smarts | Financial Literacy

In this episode, I talk to Sam Renick, the award-winning financial educator who created Sammy Rabbit to help kids get in the savings habit. Sam is a true pioneer in youth financial literacy who's has spent two decades writing, speaking and performing for kids everywhere. Sam earned the 2016 National Financial Educators Council Financial Educator of the Year and the 2015 NJ Coalition for Financial...

In this episode, I talk with Laura Levine. Laura is the Executive Director of the Jump$tart Coalition. We are a partner with this terrific non-profit that advocates for more financial literacy learning in the schools and aggregates resources for families and teachers on the comprehensive Jump$tart Clearinghouse. I've known Laura for some time — she's originally from SoCal where I live now — but cu...

In this episode, I talk with Elizabeth Odders-White. Elizabeth is a researcher from the University of Wisconsin Madison who has recently struck out on her own to provide coaching and consulting services. She co-authored the most comprehensive youth financial literacy research review to date and she brings her incredibly thoughtful approach to our discussion. Elizabeth talks to us about financial w...

In this episode, I talk to Kelli Grant, Personal Finance and Consumer Spending Reporter for CNBC. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney and Kiplinger's Personal Finance among other publications. Kelli holds a master's degree in personal financial planning from Kansas State, and a bachelor's degree in journalism and anthropology from Ithaca College. Kelli...

In this episode, I talk to Tom Henske of Lenox Partners. Tom is a Certified Financial Planner and Financial Advisor to many wealthy clients in New York City. He also created their Money Smart Kids program. He leverages his wealth of financial knowledge as well as kids and money to teach his kids some very important lessons in financial literacy. Tom shares lots of wisdom in this episode, including...

Bill Dwight is the founder of FamZoo, a "Virtual Family Bank" that integrates prepaid card accounts with family finance software to help parents and kids develop responsible money habits through hands-on experience. Bill is a father of five and he brings both his personal experience and that of the many FamZoo users to provide a plethora of great money smart teaching tips for teenagers, tweens and...

Tabatha Thurman is an award winning financial literacy educator who has taught money smarts to tens of thousands of Oklahomans. She is also a mom to a four-year-old who, as you might imagine, is being taught money smarts from a very young age. Tabatha and I both believe that starting a conversation is one of the most important aspects to financial literacy so it's only fitting that I would have he...

Atsuko, a mom, emailed me recently to say that her now 16-year-old daughter had started learning money smarts with The Money Mammals back in our program first game out. Her testimonial is here . Of course, I had to have her on the podcast. I think you'll enjoy our interesting and wide ranging conversation, including her use of the "balance" as a guiding force (for you Jedi warriors out there) in r...

Though her husband and sister were skeptical of the large amount, Melissa took the leap to a much larger Breakthrough Allowance for her three teenagers. She soon discovered that she was saving money with the new approach.

Jeremy Cybulski is a Credit Union Developmental Educator (CUDE) who has presented financial literacy to thousands of kids. He is also now a dad to a 4-year-old and we discuss the main money issues he often sees and how he plans to help his son grow up money-smart and money-empowered.

Sondi Sepanuk is a friend and mom who was frustrated by allowance programs that didn't work for her family until we discussed a different approach that immediately made sense to her. We discuss what didn't work before, what's working now and why.

In this short primer episode, John goes over some helpful information for new listeners of the podcast to help clarify key concepts and ideas that will make the conversations to come more useful.