5 best financial education apps for kids and families

Money lessons tend to stick the most when something is at stake. Tell an 8-year-old how compound interest works and you might get a blank stare, but show that same kid their birthday money grown in a savings account week after week, and it suddenly makes sense. The idea behind a good financial education app is to take the abstract stuff and make it a little bit fun.

There are several financial literacy and money apps for kids out there now, so here are five worth your time.

• Greenlight: Best all-in-one financial education app for families

• YNAB: Best for budgeting practice

• Acorns Early: Best for financial literacy lessons

• Khan Academy: Best free financial education app

• BusyKid: Best for teaching kids financial responsibility

1. Greenlight: Best all-in-one financial education app for families

Greenlight is the money and safety app built with families in mind. Parents get spend controls, chore and allowance tools, savings goals, and real-time alerts. Kids get their own name on a debit card, the opportunity to learn to invest with parental supervision on every trade, and Level Up™, the in-app financial literacy game for kids that turns interest, taxes, and even scams into bite-sized challenges kids will actually finish.

One of the main strengths of Greenlight is its natural flow and transparency. Kids can see their money at every stage and make decisions on how to manage it.

Here’s an example of how Greenlight works:

• A child does the chores listed in the app

• Their parent approves the allowance payment

• The money hits the child’s account a few days later

• They go into the app to plan how they’ll spend that money

• They see a savings goal get a little closer

• They hit “save” instead of “spend,” which takes some real willpower at 11

It’s real money with real friction and rewards, and that combination is a lesson that sinks in.

Key features

#1 family finance and safety app.

#1 family finance and safety app.

Teach your kids and teens to earn, save, and invest with Greenlight.

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• Debit card for kids (up to 5 per family)

• Chore and allowance tools

• Savings goals

• Investing with parent approval (Max+ plans)

• Level Up™

• Location sharing†† (Infinity+ plans)

• SOS alerts†† (Infinity+ plans)

• Fraud and identity theft protection§§ (Max+ plans)

Pricing

Plans start at $5.99/month for the Core plan. More comprehensive plans include:

• Max for $10.98/month

• Infinity for $15.98/month, which includes a full suite of family safety features

• Family Shield for $19.98/month with added protections for senior loved ones

Best fit

Families with kids ages 5 to 18, especially parents who want help deciding and managing how they give their kids money.

2. Acorns Early: Best for financial literacy lessons

The Acorns Early app includes Money Missions, which are short, age-appropriate videos with quizzes that teach kids about interest, smart spending, investing 101, and a few other topics. Kids are rewarded as they go, which keeps kids under 10 engaged when their attention begins to drift.

Key features

• More than 100 educational Money Missions

• Customizable debit cards (up to four per family)

• Automatic allowance and tasks

• Real-time spending notifications

Pricing

• $8/month for the Acorns Early Lite plan.

• $12/month for Acorns Gold, which includes all Acorns Early features plus some parent-side features, including an interest-bearing emergency savings account, an IRA, and a 1% match on your kids’ future investments.

Best fit

Parents of kids ages 6 to 17 who want curriculum first, with some hands-on practice on the side.

3. YNAB: Best for budgeting practice

Its full name is You Need A Budget, and the philosophy is as straightforward as that. Here you’ll see nods to the 50/30/20 budgeting framework (50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings).

When money comes in, you assign it to one of those buckets. The app keeps prompting you to rethink categories as your actual week unfolds.

Pair the YNAB educational budgeting app with a few straight-up conversations about money management for teens, and this combo starts to work its way into their behavior pretty quickly.

Key features

• Zero-based budgeting

• Live syncing between devices

• Goal tracking

• Workshops

• Rich library of tutorials

Pricing

$14.99 per month or $109 yearly. Start with a 34-day free trial.

Best fit

Older teens, college students, and adults who want a serious budgeting workout.

4. Khan Academy: Best free financial education app

Khan Academy has been the answer to the “best free finance app for kids” question for a long time. Their education app for students covers topics ranging from budgeting benefits and investing to taxes and retirement. Lessons are short videos, with practice problems built into each one.

Key features

• Free personal finance lessons

• Video lessons

• Practice exercises

• College and career planning content

Pricing

Free.

Best fit

Self-directed learners, high school students, college students, and any adult quietly trying to fill in the holes in their own financial education.

5. BusyKid: Best for teaching kids financial responsibility

BusyKid is based on a chore-to-paycheck cycle. Kids have to do the work, get paid on Friday, and split the take across spend, save, share, and invest buckets.

Parents review and approve every step along the way, which is what makes money spending rules actually stick rather than living on a printout that’s already fading on the fridge by Tuesday afternoon.

Key features

• Chore lists

• Automatic allowance

• Save/share/spend/invest buckets

• Visa prepaid card (up to five per family)

• Commission-free investing in over 4,000 stocks and ETFs with parent approval

Pricing

$48 a year per family. Annual billing only.

Best fit

Families with kids ages 5 to 17 who want to establish a predictable weekly money rhythm.

How to choose the right financial education app for your family

Before you sign up for any of them, ask yourself a few questions about your child:

• Is it easier for them to learn by watching videos and taking quizzes, or hands-on?

• How much supervision would you like? Spending limits, alerts, and approval-required investing vary significantly from app to app.

• Will they be learning to manage real money in the app, or is it more like a sandbox experience?

• Is the app fun and engaging? If it’s not, you’re going to be the one pushing them to open it.

It’s no surprise that talking about money is one of the biggest predictors of how confident your child will feel about money when they’re grown. The app you choose matters less than the rhythm you create around it in your home. Give your kids a real money education starting today.

Greenlight, the #1 family finance and safety app, gives kids their own debit card and teaches them to save, spend wisely, and even invest, all with parents in control.

The Greenlight® prepaid card is issued by Community Federal Savings Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to license by Mastercard International.

© 2025 Greenlight Investment Advisors, LLC (GIA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor provides investment advisory services to its clients. Investing involves risk and may include the loss of capital. Investments are not FDIC-insured, are not a deposit, and may lose value.

††Requires mobile data or a WiFi connection, and access to sensory and motion data from cell phone to utilize safety features including family location sharing and driving alerts and reports. Messaging and data rates and other terms may apply.

§§Insurance offered by Acrisure, LLC is provided by ACE American Insurance Company and its U.S.-based Chubb underwriting company affiliates. www.chubb.com. Additional details can be viewed here. See link for policy information. Insurance Products are not insured by the FDIC or any federal government agency and are not a deposit or other obligation of, or guaranteed by, any bank or bank affiliate.

‡Loved ones refers to covered family members as defined in the policy i.e. supported adults for which you control or assist with their finances.