Over the past few years, my oldest child, who is now in 8th grade, has started making many more spending decisions. When she was younger, it was things like buying a simple toy with some of her birthday money. Now, between Starbucks, Target, and the money she earns on her own, many more transactions are taking place.
To support this, I opened a fee-free Capital One MONEY account.
This account comes with a debit card and lets her separate spending and savings (similar to a sinking fund). Instant transfers are convenient since I already bank with Capital One.
While it’s worked well for spending, something’s been missing.
My daughter has an entrepreneurial streak; she loves earning money by shoveling snow, walking dogs and mowing lawns, but every dollar she earns disappears as quickly as it arrives.
That’s normal for her age, but I want her to develop habits like living on less than you earn and paying yourself first.
The problem with her current account is that it pays only 0.10% APY and has no investment options, so it provides little incentive for her to save.
So I set out to find an app that combines banking and investing to help her see how saving and spending work together.
While I could open a UTMA account with Fidelity or Vanguard and keep her Capital One account, I wanted an all-in-one solution to make the connection more tangible.
After researching several options, we landed on Acorns Early (formerly GoHenry). However, after signing up and getting the debit card, I found it too complicated for both parents and kids
So, we’ve now switched to Greenlight and are happy with how it’s going so far. This post highlights all the options parents might want to consider based on their goals.
#1. Greenlight (Best for Teaching Money Management Skills)
Greenlight is a family banking app and debit card for kids and teens. It offers up to five customizable cards per family.
Parents can set spending limits, block stores or categories, receive real-time spending notifications, and send instant money transfers. Kids can set savings goals, earn interest, and (with the Max and Infinity plans) invest in stocks and ETFs.
Additional tools include chore management, automated allowance payments, and a “Level Up” financial literacy game to teach kids money management skills.
Greenlight offers three tiered plans:
- Core – $5.99 per month
- Max – $9.98 per month
- Infinity – $14.98 per month
All three plans include the core features: customizable debit cards, savings tools, allowance management, and financial education.
Kids earn interest on their savings, with rates by plan: 2% for Core, 3% for Max, and 5% for Infinity.
The Max plan adds investment tools, 1% cash-back on purchases and identity theft protection. The Infinity plan builds on this with driving reports, crash detection, family location sharing and SOS alerts.
My thoughts: We first tried Acorns Early (which now includes GoHenry), but I found the transition between banking and investing to be confusing. It just didn’t feel seamless.
We’re still early on with Greenlight, but so far we’re liking the all-in-one setup much more. Everything, including spending, saving, and investing, is under one roof, which makes it easier for both us and our kids.
Right now, we invest 25% of everything our kids earn. We’re also working with them on setting savings goals, so they can experience the satisfaction of working toward something they want instead of spending all their money right away (which has been tough).
Overall, Greenlight feels like the best option we’ve come across because it combines checking and investing features in one app.
I don’t love paying the monthly fee, but I see it as an investment in my kids’ financial education. It’s also cheaper than Acorns. My hope is that by the time they’re 18, they’ll have the habit of saving first and not spending everything they make.
If you’d like to try it for your family, Greenlight currently offers a $30 sign-up bonus when you join through my Greenlight referral code.
#2. Acorns Early (Best for Learning About Long-Term Investing)
Acorns bought the financial education and money management app GoHenry in 2023, rebranding it as Acorns Early.
The account comes with a debit card and investing tools for kids ages 6 to 18.
Parents can set up automatic allowances, assign paid chores and track spending. Kids can save for goals, manage budgets, and set their purchases to “round up” in order to save spare change.
The app’s investing feature allows kids to start investing in diversified ETF portfolios. It also includes educational tools. The service costs $5 per month for one child and $10 for two to four kids. The app includes a 30-day free trial.
My thoughts: When Acorns bought GoHenry in 2023, they did not fully merge the two products. GoHenry handles the banking side, while Acorns runs the investing side, and they operate as separate apps. For me, that created friction.
I was not an Acorns user before trying Acorns Early, so I found myself having to learn a whole new app with features I did not really want. Managing two apps, one for banking and one for investing, was not as easy as I hoped.
I also ran into login issues between my account and my kids’ accounts. Customer support was decent, but since it was only handled through email, it slowed things down when I needed quick help.
In the end, Acorns Early may work better for families who already use Acorns, since it would fold more naturally into their financial routine.
For me, it felt more complicated than it needed to be. That is why I ended up switching to Greenlight, which keeps everything, including spending, saving, and investing, in one app.
#3. Fidelity Youth (Best Fee-Free Account)
The Fidelity Youth account is designed for teens aged 13 to 17 to save, spend, and invest their money with parental oversight. It features no fees or minimum balances and includes a debit card for spending. Teens can invest as little as $1, and uninvested cash earns a high APY through a money market fund.
Additional tools — such as automatic savings, allowance scheduling and interactive financial lessons — encourage teens to build strong financial habits. Parents can monitor transactions and receive activity notifications.
However, the available spending restrictions are nowhere as granular as those offered by Greenlight.
To open the account, parents must already have a Fidelity account. When the teen turns 18, the account transitions into a standard brokerage account.
My thoughts: I really like the Fidelity Youth Account, but I’m not a Fidelity customer, and two out of the three kids are not teens. Still, I think this account is the best no-fee combined banking and investing app for parents who invest with Fidelity (or who are willing to move funds).
I like that it features a high APY on uninvested cash. For teens, seeing their money grow even a little can be a powerful way to connect the ability to save with increasing your wealth.
Another major strength is the broad investment options. Unlike Acorns Early, which offers a more structured approach, Fidelity offers access to its full range of investments.
If you want a fee-free, all-in-one banking and investing solution, moving your emergency fund or cash to Fidelity may be worthwhile to access their high-APY account and this offering.
#4. Cash App (Runner-Up for Fee-Free Saving and Investing)
Cash App’s teen accounts allow users aged 13 to 17 to send and receive peer-to-peer payments, manage their money, and use a customizable Visa debit card with parental supervision.
Teens can make in-store purchases, withdraw cash from ATMs (with a $2 fee), and set savings goals with no balance requirements.
Parents must authorize the account and can set spending limits, review monthly activity statements, and pause or cancel the teen’s account at any time. Stock investing is available with parental permission, but teens cannot access Bitcoin or cross-border payments.
My thoughts: Cash App’s teen account is a solid option thanks to its spending tools, especially if you’re already a Cash App user. It’s fee-free, which is a big plus, but there’s no instant transfer option from other banks, making it best suited for families already using the Cash App ecosystem.
That said, it’s pretty bare-bones. While it offers custodial investing for individual stocks and ETFs, it lacks features like automated savings tools. It doesn’t provide any APY on cash balances.
As a result, it’s more of a stepping stone for teens learning to manage money. It won’t teach kids much of value.
Final Thoughts
While I’ve compared all these apps, I’m unsure how much they’ll help in the long term. Like most tech today, they give parents plenty of control — but I see the real value being in what they can reinforce.
For me, apps are tools to introduce and show important habits in action, such as paying yourself first. Saving 10% or 20% of what you make is one of the surest ways to build wealth over time.
In a perfect world, my kids would grow up with money saved and still feel like they weren’t deprived of experiences.
It’s my actions as a parent and the conversations we have about money that will make the most significant difference. If nothing else, apps like these help start important conversations, and seeing those habits work in real time can be a powerful lesson.
