With Christmas fast approaching, UK department store John Lewis has unveiled Nestlums, a Tamagotchi-style pet that helps young children learn about money.
Nestlums is a pocket money pet for kids between four- and eight- years old. There is no real money or connected app, instead parents use a secret-mode directly on the toy to update the balance and help their children understand the impact of their spending.
While there are apps on the market - such as GoHenry, and Starling's Kite - targeting slightly older children, Nestlums is designed to help shape positive attitudes towards money management at an impressionable age in an era where physical pocket money is increasingly a thing of the past.
The toy has been created by London-based studio Those Beyond, which was spun out from UK core banking provider Thought Machine in 2021.
The firm cites research from the Money Advice Service that suggests some of our core habits and attitudes toward money are shaped by the age of seven, making it harder to change these behaviours later in life.
Alan Wright, buying manager, toys and books, John Lewis, says: "When we first saw Nestlums, it jumped out as a unique product that was helping parents teach their children the value of money in our increasingly cashless society. We were delighted to launch this exclusively with John Lewis and the toys are proving very popular with our customers."
The toy is available for £24.99 exclusively at John Lewis.