I want my children to to develop financial skills. I want them to be comfortable and responsible with money. One of the primary ways I do that is when each of my children turns 13, I sign them up for a checking account with an accompanying debit card.

Here are the effects:

My children learn the modern mechanics of money

The mechanics of money are modern ones: primarily how to install and use your bank's app and use a credit card.

While it's called a checking account, we don't actually get checks. That's a good thing. Maybe there's minor value for a child learning about check writing, but it's 2023, not 1993. Don't teach your kids to balance a check book, teach them to check their bank balance on their phone. Have them teach you to set up Apple Pay. This is the world they will live in as adults, they should learn it now.

My children have an easy time getting allowances and reimbursement

The accounts I set up permit me to see their account but they can't see mine. I can transfer money in and out of their account, but they can't touch mine. It's perfect.

I set up an automated weekly transfer of their allowance, and can move money in or out of their account if they spend on something I would normally pay for or vice versa.

These ease of moving money means we can have discussions about spending and resolve discrepancies immediately. It's a wonderful way to model mature money decisions.

Also, I don't need to keep cash on hand to irregularly pay out allowances (which used to be a source of friction and frustration for everybody).

My children learn to conceptually to manage their money

By giving my child a bank account, I am teaching them how to conceptualize money. They actually see their balance building as weekly automated transfers of allowances and their occasional deposits from birthdays and babysitting grow their totals. And in the app, they see as their spending decreases that total in a more memorable way than spending cash.

If you goal is to raise kids that understand how money works in the modern world, open a checking account for them today. I did and it works.