My son will enter primary school next year, so I want to intensify my efforts to impart him financial literacy these days.

In this regard, I think Japanese companies are hitting the sweet spot when it comes to incentivising young kids to save. My son watched a YouTube video regarding a Pokemon piggy box and clamoured to have it. Ya I know that it’s gimmicky, but I went ahead to buy one for him because I acknowledged its fun element.

How is it fun? Since it’s battery-operated, it lets you put a coin on a designated place. Then, lo and behold! Pikachu will peek from his hiding place and stretch his arm out to deposit the coin into the piggy box.

It turned out that this was a good toy to engage my 2-year-old. She was very captivated by Pikachu’s antics!

Another interesting product is this savings book. It makes one’s goal of travelling around Japan salient, declares the saving target (¥100, 000), and has ¥500 pouches so that you know exactly what and how many coins to save. Very systematic - just the way I like it. I would buy this book for myself if I were living in Japan.

What fun ways do you use to get your children to save money?