We'd like to introduce you to someone who’s recently joined the site to help young people make the most of every dollar and consumer decision: meet Kay, the (younger!) version of our organization's founder. She’s been practicing mindful spending for years. She is ready to share time-tested moments of reflection, all in service of helping today's school-aged children develop a money personality that helps them avoid early financial pitfalls. She is also customizable for your institution or community!
Reflective moments really help kids learn about money.
When we designed the site, our first task was to create a user experience for youth that makes learning about money immediately helpful to their young lives. Financial information needs to be relevant to be helpful. And our users can be as young as 8, so we knew simple language was best. That said, we're also repeatedly told that young people sincerely appreciate how we don't pander to them by, for example, using cute substitutes for terms they really need to learn.
We knew that too much information in the body of DIMS-DOES IT MAKE SENSE?® SCORE questions “muddied the waters.” However, not enough discovery throughout the process of learning how to think before you buy compromises the goal. Reflective moments really help kids understand that anyone can get and use (at first basic) financial information to make their lives better. As you might be guessing by now - we found ourselves in a balancing act.
Enter Kay.
Kay prompts young people to quickly research how much money is required to fully pay for an item or experience because the "price" of anything is just the beginning. She then helps students anticipate how much they'll use or appreciate an item or experience. Her comments replace the "Learn More" buttons on the old site.
Kay prompts the reflective moments that help build "Money Privilege Empathy."
Kay's remarks offer young people time-tested guidelines for what constitutes ample use (e.g., number of wears) of an item. She similarly offers guidelines for how exceptional an experience is, which may speak to how likely caregivers are to pay for it. (With the constant qualification that every family has their own unique thresholds for what a lot or a little amount of money is.) Her responses are designed to build what we like to call "Money Privilege Empathy" (MPE). MPE helps normalize the trade-offs that are part and parcel of every consumer decision, as well as the fact that money is scarce for many families and finite for all.
And she's customizable for your institution or community!
Over the years, we've been approached to build institution or community-specific DIMS SCORE® Calculators. With Gifting Sense 2.0, we have the ability to do this in a very efficient manner. Work with us to build a mindful spending tool that addresses your student's particular areas of interest. Let us know what your ideal Avatar looks like. We know students sometimes have to "see it to believe it," and now we have a way for your students to see themselves in the tool they're using.
As you explore and use the DIMS SCORE® Calculator, please write to us with feedback. We've observed for almost a decade that humanizing financial decision-making normalizes the trade-offs each of us has to make when deciding how to spend our hard-earned money. We hope a friendly face will help more young people than ever discover how easy it is to invest in their future, one thoughtful choice at a time.
Click on the pink or blue buttons below to learn more about our approach, offerings, and tools.
DIMS SCORE® Questions For Parents For Teachers
