The promotion clock doesn’t slow down in September any more than your routine should.

What This Means for You

At this moment the majority of the families who set up a JumpStart Savers Account in July are in the middle of the 90-day period and are watching their account approach its first amount of $100; the account itself wasn’t the important thing, the habit was.

TFCU designed the Smart Start promotion on the basis of one simple assumption: if you continue with an activity for ninety days it ceases to be a promotion and becomes a routine. It is the families who establish routines by saving, checking in and learning together that end up seeing those habits last well beyond the period of the promotion.

Key Takeaways

• Repetition builds the habit, not one big effort back in July
• Kids notice what parents do every week more than what they’re told once
• A savings account only teaches anything if someone actually checks it
• Families who complete Smart Start by September 30, 2026 earn a $100 deposit after 90 days in good standing

Habits Beat Willpower

It is not helpful to try harder in order to develop a habit of saving; instead, it is a regular Sunday check of the savings account that achieves this. By Wednesday, one’s willpower is gone. If a family regularly looks together at their savings account every Sunday, there is no need for them to make the decision each week to save; the routine takes care of it for them.

Make It a Family Thing, Not a Kid Thing

It rarely works to give a child an account and then walk away. The families who succeed at this approach are those who look at the balance together, ask the child what has happened, and then let the child explain it again. The five-minute talk achieves more than any lecture on compound interest could ever do.

Let the Numbers Talk

A balance that is clearly rising towards $100 provides a child with something a spreadsheet full of advice never can: concrete evidence. The fact that online banking makes this evidence available at any time is precisely the reason why it is better to check the account regularly than to check it perfectly.

Proudly Tucson

The Smart Start program was based on the idea that 90 days is long enough to make setting up an account a real habit. So, if your family opened a JumpStart Savers Account this summer, September is the month to keep that routine in place before the window closes on 30th September 2026.

Mini-FAQ

• We set up our account in July; when does the 90-day period expire?
  • It will depend on the exact date you open it; a member of the branch team will be able to look it up and give you the exact day your window closes.
• Maybe we haven’t finished teaching the Zogo lessons yet?
  • Time still remains, the promotion will be going on until 30 September 2026, so this is a good month to get the any remaining Zogo modules completed.
• What would occur if a week of check-ins was missed?
  • The account remains unchanged; merely the habit becomes a bit more difficult to resume. Choose a day, put it on your calendar, and then go back to it.

*Offer valid for New Youth Members only. New youth account membership must include JumpStart Savers account and online banking registration. Valid on accounts opened between July 1, 2026 – September 30, 2026 in person at a branch location and mentioning this promo. Members will receive the deposit after criteria has been met and account has been opened and in good standing for 90-days. This Credit Union is federally insured by NCUA.