Guardian Savings Celebrates 50,000 Transactions
Paradigm-shifting financial literacy app experiences promising growth among families
Guardian Savings is a child-focused, financial education app that is rapidly gaining traction among families around the world. Since launching to the public in January 2021, the app has taken off, with over 500 families logging more than 50,000 deposits and withdrawals. User growth has increased over 250% over the last three months as more and more parents discover the advantages that Guardian Savings has over traditional tools, like the piggy bank.
Guardian Savings disrupts the piggy bank, an age-old money storage tool that many parents grew up with. Instead of stashing coins and bills in their room, children give their loose money to parents and record the “deposit” in the Guardian Savings app. To spend their money, children request cash from their parents and log the withdrawal in the app. This system means parents can put their children in the driver’s seat with spending their own money whenever they are together.
“The saying ‘practice makes perfect’ is the educational foundation for how we built the app” said Guardian Savings CEO, Erik Neighbour. “We want kids to get more practice making tough prioritization decisions so that they learn to limit their spending to things they need or actually make them happy. The app makes practice easy and parallels adult banking -- you can show your child their balance, help them reflect on past decisions, and log a withdrawal at any time. It is rewarding to see that the app has helped facilitate 50,000 individual moments that kids can learn from”
Screenshot from Guardian Savings’ app listing
One feature highlighted prominently in the Guardian Savings’ App is parent funded interest. Neighbour says, “Interest is an important concept for kids to learn and is one of the many behavioral tools we have in the app. We built our interface in such a way to guide kids to make responsible decisions on their own rather than doing so because they are told. A savings interest rate of say, 20%, can make a child think just a little bit harder when considering whether or not to buy something. Thinking before buying is a good habit to have. While 50,000 app transactions is a nice milestone, I wonder how many transactions kids have chosen not to continue with because they were thinking about interest.”
Asked how his family uses Guardian Savings, Alan Hensley, a professional financial adviser said “my [7-year-old] daughter impressed me by how fast she learned to use the app, not to mention the principles of saving and smart spending that are encouraged throughout the interface…Financial literacy has to start somewhere and the sooner that foundation can be made, the more confident a child will be when it comes to managing money as an adult.”
As for what they are working on next, CEO Erik Neighbour said “we have some exciting developments planned that will improve the educational impact of our existing product and extend the ages that Guardian Savings is relevant for. We want to help parents raise money-savvy kids. We believe that means being the teacher and parent’s trusted partner for every major financial life milestone that a child will experience.”
About Guardian Savings: Guardian Savings is a savings tracking app that helps parents raise money savvy kids. The app serves as a record keeper for savings between child and parent while also striving to make every money interaction a valuable lesson. The company was founded in October 2018 and launched its first public app in January 2021, which is available for iOS, Android, and the Web.
To learn more about Guardian Savings, visit www.GuardianSavings.org