ATLANTA — A Georgia father of six is working to teach his children the value of money, and he's doing it with a new app he created.
Gregg Muset is the founder and CEO of the BusyKid app, a platform that teaches kids they could do more with their chores money than just spend it.
Murset, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), says he created the app to introduce children to stocks, investments, the concept of donating funds and general money management.
"What BusyKid strives to do is mimic reality for kids so they can start learning this at a young age so they can be a lot smarter than the rest of us when they get older," Murset said. "Teaching that earlier rather than later is really fundamental because honestly, they don't really get this stuff anywhere else."
A recent national study by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FIRNA) found only 28% of Georgians could correctly answer at least 4 of 5 questions on a financial literacy quiz.
Test your knowledge: take the quiz here.
The BusyKid app works to beat those odds while teaching children to be fiscally and socially responsible.
The app instills these lessons by allowing children to check off chores tasks, earn money, and choose to put the funds onto a debit card, into a savings account, invest in stocks, or donate to charities.
Metro Atlanta parents Tiffany and Chris Amos say they recently started using the app with their children Carrigan, 10 and Christian, 14.
"I think in this day and age, it's more and more important that we do teach our children how to manage their money," Tiffany said. "Back in the day, 20 years ago, it was just work, work, work, but no one really explained to you what to do with your money. You would just rack up all these debts and not know what to do with them."
They say the app has also given them insight into the kind of people their children are.
Christian has become a reformed earn-and-burn spender and says he started saving most of his earnings for large purchases.
“When I was younger, I just moved all of it into spend because I wanted to spend all my money, but now I like save for like things that are bigger," Christian said. "I saved up for computer parts so I could build my own computer. It felt pretty amazing, actually, because I went out and earned it for myself.”
Carrigan, who was a notorious chores-avoider, according to her parents, has started channeling her money toward local charities.
“I wanted to help other children who are not as fortunate as we are," Carrigan said. She recently donated her allowance to Project Night Night, an organization that supports homeless children.
"It gave 10 kids blankets, teddy bears and books and I bought all of it with my own money," she said. "It felt really good.”
Murset says the responsibility for teaching kids about money management often falls on the parents.
“You'd think they would get it at school more but they really don't," he said.
"Parents have to take responsibility and start leveraging technology to teach them in a different way. It used to be a piggy bank or jars on your dresser -- we need to just throw it out the window because that's really not how money works anymore.”
Learn more about the BusyKid app here.