Earlier this week while at a scouting event I had a chance to talk to a few young scouts about how they were doing with their personal finance merit badge.  To get the merit badge a scout has to keep a three month record of all their financial transactions including all debits and credits to their checking and savings accounts…that is if they have account as compared to just keeping their money rolled up in a wad in their nightstand drawer.  Well one of the boys pulled out a wallet he had made of duct tape and said…”I’m doing great and I have a $100 right here in my wallet”…yes you heard me correct, a duct tape wallet.  The wallet was completely made out of duct tape and as I tried to grab it to threaten to take his $100 if he wasn’t keeping a history of his transactions part of the wallet tore off.  Oh well, he can just add more tape to fix it he said.

Anyway, he had money in his wallet and in his savings account, but he had not been writing down his transaction history and to get the merit badge you must keep that record.  So here is the idea…for a company that specializes in home budget software or home budgeting software you could show a group of scouts that used your household budgeting software to help them get their personal finance merit badge and title the post something like, 8 Scouts Use “Company Name” Personal Finance Software to Get Their Personal Finance Merit Badge or Get Your Personal Finance Merit Badge by Using Our Home Budget Software for Free if You Are a Boy Scout.

This merit badge is by far one of the most difficult badges for any scout to receive because they have to apply themselves for a period of 90 days to keep that record and in the last 4 years I have only seen 2 scouts do it.  My brother is working to get his Eagle Scout Award right now and before he turns 18 (has 10 months left) and the last merit badge he has to get is, you guessed it, his personal finance badge.

There you have it!