Bodeeo uses playful cartoon characters to teach kids financial life lessons.
Having financially-savvy children is among the top luxuries parents covet. When you work hard, it’s important that your kids know what to do with finances. It’s easier than ever for kids to get the wrong ideas: debit cards, student loans, and credit card debt, when approached in an irresponsible manner, can all be money pits for young people.
How do children learn how to handle money? Usually, they watch what the adults around them do. But modeling smart financial behavior isn’t enough. Parents often have questions about how best to impart certain concepts about money so that their kids grow up with the right ideas.
Into this void steps a new startup that launched this fall. Dubbed Bodeeo, the New York-based site is the brainchild of longtime financial journalist Erika Vujnovich. She spent years covering the markets and investing for CNBC and other outlets. Simultaneously, Vujnovich became a mother of two, and discovered that her children – adorably – had no idea about money. Unlike, say, how to stack blocks, financial sense is not innate in humans. Her kids had all kinds of questions, and she had to come up with answers that sated their curiosity while giving them the foundation for responsible spending, saving, and borrowing.
Bodeeo – The Financial Playground – is where parents can come to mine Vujnovich’s answers. She combines blog posts with lessons that parents can buy ($10 each or monthly subscriptions starting at $6), focusing on specific areas like credit cards, back-to-school shopping, and the anatomy of a job. The lessons feature coaching on how parents can explain the ideas, fun activities for the kids, and a story involving the site’s cast of themed cartoon characters. Among them: two friends named Bode and Leo; a bouncy piggy bank named Moolah; and of course a bull and a bear.
Your kids will still see what their friends do, as well as what’s online and on TV. The idea is to give parents a conversation-starter to counteract all the bad financial advice they’ll get outside of the home.