Why I quit Google and built an app that teaches personal finance to kids

Adam Naor Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 20, 2017

Many of my friends thought I was crazy to leave a great position at Google to help parents and kids learn about money. Maybe they’re right.

Building a creative, engaging app to teach financial literacy to kids is challenging. But it’s also important work.

Given that many schools aren’t yet teaching personal finance in the classroom, I felt compelled to make this work my mission.

I founded Pennybox with a simple yet audacious goal: educate kids and families about money. Before I started coding, I spoke with hundreds of parents and asked them this question: Do you teach your kids about money and what are the results?

What I learned was surprising: while all parents thought that financial education was important to the well being of their children, few actively taught financial topics at home, or felt empowered or sufficiently skilled to do so.

How my parents taught me about money

When I was younger, my parents gave me a book about fun ways to earn and save money. I remember reading it and appreciating the photos of money and the story about how a pile of coins would grow over time if managed properly. I was fascinated from the start.

I was lucky. My parents had taken time to buy me the book, and made sure I read and understood it. Even better, they provided me a hands-on environment in which to apply and practice the lessons I learned. They called this “learning by doing.”

They’d give me small amounts of money for doing chores and helping out around the community. By “learning on the job” the lessons I read came to life. I was able to gain a deeper understanding of important topics, like how to budget and save.

For kids unable to learn about money at home, the classroom should be an obvious place to turn. But this isn’t the case. Only 17 US states require any financial education for their students. Ultimately when kids are “undereducated” about money, society picks up the bill.

Technology is a perfect medium to help solve this problem.

Lessons that I’m building Pennybox around

Below, I’ve distilled the key lessons from my experiences with money. These are the most important lessons I learned and it is my desire to pass this knowledge on — to you or your own children, to your friends that have kids, and to anyone that is struggling to maintain their financial health. And they are insights I’m building into Pennybox.

Lesson #1: Earn real money for doing real things

Key Takeaway: A dollar earned is a good thing