We all know it – cash is no longer king. Australians now use cards more often than cash to pay for things. Understanding the value of money is an important childhood lesson, so as traditional cash nears extinction, how do parents pay their kids pocket money and continue to instil a practical life lesson? This clever Australian business might just have the answer.
Spriggy is a mobile app which offers a Visa prepaid card for kids. The app allows parents to allocate money to their child’s prepaid card, so you can pay your kids regular pocket money while working with them to set up savings goals. And it all happens under your watchful eye because the app gives you total transparency – you have full overview and control (and can block it at any time), so you choose how much to place on the card and can see what your kids are spending their money on.
Made for 8-17 year olds, Spriggy helps kids and their parents manage money together. Kids can use their personalised card to make purchases online or in-store, wherever Visa is accepted (and they get their own app too). Spriggy helps teach the value of money by giving kids real world practice and responsibility for their own spending and savings decisions, which in a digital age where money is less tangible than ever, is a smart thing indeed.
spriggy.com.au
Haven Extras – 2018
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Bob Hawke, Australia’s longest-serving Labor prime minister, recently skolled a beer at the Ashes test at the SCG. The 88-year-old upheld his tradition of downing a schooner within seconds, much to the delight of the crowd. Each Wednesday throughout 2017 – when not drinking beer – Hawke spent time with young writer Derek Rielly, welcoming him into his home for conversation and sharing of cigars. At these midweek rendezvous, they talked politics, friendship, sport, love, success, death, life, religion, marriage, fatherhood and much more between. The conversations are interspersed by interviews with John Howard, Kim Beazley, Blanche d’Alpuget and others. The result is an extraordinary portrait of a beloved Australian – a funny, uniquely personal study of Hawke ruminating on his (and our) past, present and future.
Macmillan $29.99
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For the love of coffee
Australia is a dinky di nation of coffee lovers, with our thriving cuppa joe culture supported by the 75 per cent of Australians who drink at least one cup a day. It is said that the late, great British food critic AA Gill once called Australians “the great new coffee bores of the world” – and he might just be right if a scroll through the average Instagram feed is any indication. We take our coffee drinking and its documentation very seriously! Here are some interesting facts about one of our favourite brews.
- 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed daily around the world.
- The most popular coffee in Australia is the cappuccino. In Italy, where the cappuccino originated, it is considered poor etiquette to drink the breakfast beverage past 11am.
- The word coffee comes from the Arabic for “wine of the bean”.
- After petroleum, coffee is the world’s second most valuable traded commodity.
- Espresso is regulated by the Italian government, because it is considered such an important part of the Italian lifestyle.
- Coffee beans aren’t actually beans, they are fruit pits/seeds.
- Finland is the largest drinker of coffee in the world, with 12kg consumed per person per year.
- Brazil is the world’s leading producer of coffee, providing one third of the world’s coffee.
Any advice contained in this article is of a general nature only and does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. Therefore, before making any decision, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice with regard to those matters. Information in this article is correct as of the date of publication and is subject to change.