Raising Money Savvy Kids with HLB Pocket Connect, a Digital Banking Technology

How to raise a financially savvy kids? We as parents can start introducing financial management and education and imparting the value of money to our children from young age but how? At this post today, let me give you some tips from a team of specialist and moms on how to raise a financially savvy kids.

Why do we need to start our kids from their very young age on financial management? The Malaysian Insolvency Department reported a startling data that youth (aged below 35 years old) bankruptcy made up to 25.2% of bankruptcy cases from 2017 to 2019 in the country which is quite alarming. Therefore, there is an urgent need to make financial literacy and education a key life skill to be taught to all Malaysians. 

How should we begin with? Just like charity begins at home, same as forming a life-long healthy relationship with money which we should begin it as early as possible. In the age of everything digital, we as parents can now leverage on digital tools to help us educate and engage our digital native children effectively to be financially-conscious and responsible.

Last 2 weeks, Mommy Jane and some parents attended Hong Leong Bank and Hong Leong Islamic Bank's webinar entitled "Raising DuitSmart Kids in a Digital Age". We can now teach our children the lifelong skill and habit to be financially savvy with HLB Pocket Connect, the first mobile banking platform for young savers in Malaysia.

What is HLB Pocket Connect? It is an interactive and personalised banking platform built for digital natives who are well acquainted with and demand hyper-personalisation, real-time gratification and highly interactive content and experiences. Available to all HLB 3-in-1 Junior Account holders, it has three proprietary features namely Earn, Save and Spend, which enable our children to learn to be financially responsible under the watchful eyes of us as parents, who are able to guide, manage and monitor our children’s pocket money and savings.

Under the Earn feature, we as parents can set tasks or goals and reward our children with extra pocket money when they complete them. Not only does this teach our children the value of hard work and earned money, it also gives them sense of achievement when they are able to meet their goals.

As the account comes with reloadable Junior Debit Card for children to Spend, we as parents can have peace of mind knowing that we can monitor and control our children’s pocket-money spending. Not only can we top-up the pocket money through seamless transfer from our HLB Connect, we can set spending limits, control where and what our children can spend on as well as monitor real-time spending of our children.

We as parents can also block or freeze the Junior Debit Card instantly if we suspect any fraudulent or improper spend, all done through our HLB Connect. To inculcate a savings habit, HLB Pocket Connect will soon have a customizable Save feature which allows our children to set their savings goals for things that they want and allowing them to track their savings through progress reports.

Zalman Zainal, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer of HLB

Zalman Zainal, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer of HLB said that they have developed HLB Pocket Connect to be simple, seamless and fun for both parents and their children to go through the journey of responsible money management in an open and transparent way. They hope this will empower our young savers to make better life and financial choices as well as build a healthy relationship and appreciation for money for their own sustainable future.

The webinar hosted by Sheahnee Iman Lee, mother-of-three, featured guests who shared their diverse experiences as parents, educators and young entrepreneurs. Among the opinions shared, all panelists agreed on one thing - financial literacy has to be taught early to form a life-long healthy relationships with money, which will enable our children to make better life decisions down the road. 

Kyle Tan, co-founder of Little Tauke, a startup that provides financial literacy education for children explains that as young as two years old, children begin to grasp basic financial concepts starting with barter through trading things with you. They are also quick to pick up our spending patterns. Her 2-year-old used to play with the ringgit notes in her wallet, but after a while he started playing with credit cards instead. Teaching our children about money as early as possible is about giving them a head start and time to practice their financial abilities before they become adults. Hence, they always encourage parents to be intentional and open about finances at home. This will help our children build consistent habits and attitudes to save and spend wisely, which is a great advantage they will carry throughout their lifetime.

Kyle Tan, co-founder of Little Tauke

Lolitta Suffian, who uses HLB Pocket Connect with her two children aged 12 and 9 shared the most important money lesson she teaches her kids is that we have to earn it by setting goals and working towards them. She also explained this is the same lesson her parents imparted to her. She said that since we as parents are the most influential people in our children’s lives as, our children observe and learn from all that we do. She practice a rewards system with her children where they earn money from good grades, chores, good behaviour and deeds. They review this every Sunday using the HLB Pocket Connect app, and she transfer the amounts her kids earned to their accounts. The app helps her children to understand the amount her children have earned and how to be wise in spending it. Building on that understanding, her children are able to inculcate smarter money management at a young age.

Lolitta Suffian, Mom of 2 kids

Claudia Tan, 23-year-old co-founder of Revive Vintage Store and a successful young entrepreneur shared that her father instilled the idea of saving money and seizing opportunities to make money work for her when she was young. Her father always encouraged her to save 20% of her ang pow money or any income rather than spend or splurge it all.  He also taught her to always look for financial opportunities to make her money grow, be it parking it in a Fixed Deposit or other banking options. She is grateful he instilled these good money habits and financial management in her from a young age. Over time, she learnt that saving is part of her investing in herself and her future. Today, it has allowed her to pursue her passions in writing and sustainable fashion, which helps diversify her income sources.

Claudia Tan, co-founder of Revive Vintage Store and a successful young entrepreneur

Another successful young entrepreneur Chai Chuan Fook, CEO of Newave Products Sdn. Bhd., on the other hand, learnt the value of money as a primary school boy through his mini enterprise venture. He obtained rare toys from the capsule vending machines found at convenience stores and sold them to classmates who were unable to visit those stores. From this venture, he learnt that money can grow with good planning and relying on the right financial experts. This is a lesson he has carried forward through to adulthood and his businesses. He also highly encourages parents to teach our children the importance planning their finances and its value from a young age. 

How to open the bank account? As a full time working Mom, HLB has made it very easy for us to to open a 3-in-1 Junior Account. We can conveniently do so by vising the Bank’s official store on Shopee (www.shopee.com.my/hongleongbank.os) anytime, anywhere. Upon “purchasing” the account, a HLB representative will be in touch and come to our house or office anytime at our convenient to assisting with the account opening process without us needing to visit any physical branches. It is indeed convenient coz' Mommy Jane had opened 3-in-1 Junior Accounts for my 4 Little Angels aged below 18 years old and 1 basic account for my eldest Little Angel who had reached 18 years old this year. The best thing is RM1 is refundable to our Shopee account and we could get 2,000 Shopee Coins now. What are you waiting for? Just purchase it from Shopee now. 

Jason, HLB officer from Jalan Ipoh branch helping Mommy Jane and Little Angels to process the applications for Hong Leong Bank's 3-in-1 Junior Account

Jason, HLB officer from Jalan Ipoh branch is a young, professional and friendly guy. He called me and made appointment with me at my own convenient to visit my home on Sunday at 3 p.m. He brought along an Ipad to registered the accounts on the spot and explained to me the process and fees for the account opening. Since I have 5 accounts to open, Jason patiently did all the opening process in 1 hour plus. On the next day which is on Monday, he visited my home again to pass the debit cards to my Little Angels and on Tuesday, he WhatsApp and email me the Shopee voucher codes and guide me to redeem the vouchers. Thank you Jason for your great services!!! 

For those who didn't attend the webinar, no worries, you could  watch the full video here https://www.facebook.com/HLBMalaysia/videos/735735070446514 and to find out more about HLB Pocket Connect, please visit: www.hlb.com.my/pocket. 

Start young and start now to raise our kids to be savvy by opening HLB Pocket Connect. After using the App for 1 week plus, my kids are more hardworking now as compared to last time. Everytime they did the housework or do the things that I told them, they will be rewarded with RM1 per job. Not much but as Malays saying "Sikit Sikit Lama Lama Jadi Bukit". We have meeting weekly and once their jobs done, Mommy Jane will transfer money through HLB online to their account and my Little Angels will feel so happy as they see their money growing weekly. They will plan what to buy next with the money that they have and will also set a side part of the money for savings. I'm indeed proud of my 5 Little Angels for their enthusiasm to save money for their future.