Youth Savings Account
Teaching children to save is a lesson that lasts a lifetime. CPS IBEW FCU makes it easy with our Youth Savings Account:
No minimum balance
No monthly service fees
Dividends paid monthly
$5 minimum deposit to open
When opening a new account, you need to provide your child’s Social Security Card and a second form of ID, which could be a birth certificate, passport, or state ID
Available to children under 18 years old
Can Your Kids Picture Their Financial Futures?
National Credit Union Youth Month and Financial Literacy Month are both in full swing. Did you know that almost 60% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, and nearly 40% have none? To help turn that trend around, CPS IBEW FCU wants to help both you and your kids picture a bright future filled with financial security, starting right now.
To honor these important celebrations, we want to challenge you to open a dialogue with your kids about setting financial goals. We asked several Credit Union members to do the same, and what their kids told them was surprising.
“I asked my 9-year-old son what he wants his first job to be, assuming it would be his first job in his career after college,” explained a member. “But, instead, he immediately blurted out the exact part-time job he wanted in high school as soon as he’s able to work. I was shocked and proud that not only would he be willing to work to start saving money as soon as he’s old enough, but that he had already thought through the details on his own and is excited about it!”
In fact, many of the Credit Union kids we asked named jobs they’d love to have as teenagers.
Another member asked her 11-year-old how much he thought big milestones like college and a first home would cost. “He was surprisingly accurate,” she said. “He also had a good idea of how much he might make after graduation working as a sports journalist—currently his second career pick if his professional basketball career doesn’t take off. We talked about the different accounts his father and I are already funding to help him reach those goals, and what he might need to be responsible for himself. It was really important for him to understand that although achieving life goals like getting a college degree and buying a home are expensive, there are steps we can all take now to help make it possible.”
It's never too early to talk about other life goals—even retirement!
Our Credit Union kids showed us how much they know—and how much we have yet to discuss—when it comes to working toward retirement. We asked three 8-year-olds when they think their parents will retire and what that will mean. Here’s how their answers differed:
My parents will retire at 22 years old. Retirement is bad.
My parents will retire at 60 years old. It means they don’t like their work anymore.
My parents will retire at 47 years old. “Retire” means to quit your job because you’re too old.
As you can tell, there are opportunities in moments like these to talk to your kids about what retirement really means and how fulfilling it can be to save for it. And why it’s never too early to start saving.
After you’ve talked to your kids about their future goals (and yours, too) and what it might take for your family to work together to achieve them, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) recommends starting small with their savings. Perhaps help them save for a toy they want. Then sign them up for a Youth Savings Account to save for far-off goals. Our Youth Savings Accounts can be opened with as little as $5 and have no minimum balance requirements or service fees.
Find yourself behind on saving for goals, too? You’re not alone. You can start small, too. Perhaps commit to putting a small amount into a savings account every week. Direct Deposit and CPS Energy payroll deductions make it easy, by allowing you to set up an automatic transfer of, say, $10 into a Savings Account every time your paycheck is deposited. Over time, you can gradually increase the amount by a dollar or two.
When you picture yourself in the future achieving goals like buying a car or a home, saving becomes easier. Make it a family affair this month by picturing financial goals together, then ask us how we can help you make those dreams a reality.
Introducing Teen Checking
While a Youth Savings Account can be used for children up to 18 years old, we offer a CPS IBEW FCU Teen Checking Account with a debit card for 13-17 year olds who are interested in actively using funds.
Available for teens ages 13-17 (with parent or guardian as a joint member)
$25 minimum deposit to open
Includes access to Visa Debit Card with options for parental control/monitoring
$0 monthly service fee
No minimum balance required
To open a new account, please bring your Social Security Card and a second form of ID, including birth certificate, passport, or state ID
The account can be set up and monitored by parents with security and spending controls in place. Teens have the freedom to spend within the limits you set while learning valuable life lessons in financial responsibility—from depositing checks to deciding how much of what they earn should go to savings to monitoring for fraud and overspending.
Is It Time For A Teen Debit Card?
It’s a rite of passage for teens to start earning “cash” and learning how to be responsible for their own expenses. But how useful is cash these days? If you’re like most Americans, you use your debit and credit cards far more often. It’s unrealistic to assume teens will get very far with only cash in their pockets, particularly when most of their purchases are completed online and through apps.
Enter Teen Checking and debit cards. They can be a natural progression for a child growing into an adult. Here’s how:
Ideally, if your child or grandchild has $5 or more in cash lying around, it’s time for them to have their own Savings Account. That usually means before they’re old enough to count money. Why? It can be easy to lose track of the monetary gifts your child receives for birthdays, holidays, and other occasions from the moment they’re born. Accounts made for children, like the CPS IBEW Federal Credit Union Youth Savings Account, are special because they’re made to grow along with the child with no minimum balance, no monthly service fees, and dividends paid monthly.
As the child grows into a teen, their financial activity grows, too.
While a Youth Savings Account can be used for children up to 18 years old, we also offer a CPS IBEW FCU Teen Checking Account with a debit card for 13-17 year olds who are interested in actively using funds. The account includes a Visa Debit Card with spending limits available to set up by calling our tellers. To open an account, it’s $25 minimum deposit, with valid ID and Social Security Card. It’s available for qualified members with a parent or guardian as a joint member.
The account can be set up and monitored by parents with security and spending controls in place.
Teens have the freedom to spend within the limits you set while learning valuable life lessons in financial responsibility—from depositing checks to deciding how much of what they earn should go to savings to monitoring for fraud and overspending. Getting started with these lessons on a debit card that’s monitored by a parent has been shown to improve financial savviness into adulthood.
“Do you recall qualifying for your first ‘plastic card’ as a young adult and immediately getting into debt? Back then, the idea of a debit or credit card was very abstract. It was easy to overspend because the connection from the card to the money in your bank account wasn’t apparent,” says Edna Narum, CPS IBEW FCU Chief Financial Officer. “Now that transactions are increasingly digital, it’s more important than ever to teach teens how clicking a ‘buy’ button affects the ‘cash’ in their account. A Teen Checking Account with a debit card can be a helpful step in that education process.”