【推荐1】Children may not be putting coins in piggy banks for much longer. With the move towards a cashless society, pocket money is going digital.

To reflect “the change”, many mobile budgeting apps for children have appeared worldwide, such as GoHenry, Osper and Gimi. These apps offer a simple money management service to children, often for a monthly fee paid by the parents. Parents can add money to children’s accounts, set limits and monitor transactions. Children can choose to save their money or spend it using a prepaid card.

These apps aim to teach young children financial concepts, such as budgeting, interest rates and income. For example, the Swedish app Gimi — 1.2 million users globally — has virtual savings jars where children can deposit money. Parents can pay children interest as they save. There is also a prepaid card that is currently available in Sweden only, but is expected to be launched elsewhere in Europe.

Philip Haglund, CEO of Gimi, believes the app can teach children responsible spending habits. “You don’t become better at money management just because you have a degree in economics. It’s more about the attitude and the relationship you have with parents’ money when you’re 6 to 12 years old,” he says.

But Catherine Winter, Managing Director of Financial Capability at The London Institute of Banking &Finance, warns people that while digital tools can help, there needs to be a more organized approach to financial education. The area should “have regular, designed classroom time and ideally should be taught as an independent subject”, she says. “Children would then have the right understanding to get the most out of both the apps and their money.”

【推荐3】Now some women are spending a weekend at Mother’s Camp. There, husbands (丈夫) and children are not allowed. Why would a woman want to take a vacation without her family? Some women say they need time to be alone.

At Mother’s Camp a woman has room to herself. She can sleep, read or watch TV, and no one will bother (打扰) her. No children will ask, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” No husband will say, “Oh, dear, I can’t find any clean socks.” In fact, almost 50% of women in the United States work outside the home. Many of them work full-time and then come home to a second job — taking care of their homes and families. These working women say one of their biggest problems is housework.

In the United States, working women do about 75% of the housework. Many of their husbands say they want to help. But then they burn the rice or they can’t find the pans. They ask so many questions that their wives decide it is easier to do the job themselves.

Some women go to Mothers Camp just to get a break from housework. For two days they don’t cook, they don’t clean, they don’t look after their children or husbands. What do they do? They enjoy warm, sunny weather, walking, swimming or boating in a clear blue lake and sing songs around the campfire. They relax away from home. They have a really wonderful vacation at Mothers Camp.

【推荐2】Vehicles on our roads are now mostly petrol and diesel (柴油) cars, but their days cannot continue for much longer. A recent university study found that current electric cars could be used for 87 percent of daily car journeys in the US. That figure could rise to 98 percent by 2020.

One hurdle to the widespread adoption of electric cars has been “range anxiety” — drivers concerns about running out of electricity on a journey. While petrol stations are conveniently located across national road systems, the necessary network of electric charging stations is still being developed. That said, charging points are becoming increasingly common throughout the USA.

Attitudes towards electric vehicles have changed greatly over the last few years. Not that long ago, electric cars were met with distrust, and their high prices drove customers away. Thanks to improvements in battery capacity, recharging times, performance and price, the current generation of electric cars are starting to persuade picky consumers. Plug-in cars will soon give internal combustion engine (内燃机) models a run for their money.

As well as development on the road, electric vehicles are taking to the seas and skies. Electric boats are among the oldest methods of electric travel, having enjoyed several decades of popularity from the late 19th to the early 20th century before petrol-powered outboard motors took over. Now, the global drive for renewable energy sources is bringing electric boats back. Steps towards electric air travel are also being made, with Airbus and NASA among the organizations developing and testing battery-powered planes. The experiments could soon make commercial electric flight a reality.

Electric vehicles do not produce any emissions (排放). If the US could replace 87 percent of its cars with electric vehicles, it would reduce the national demand for petrol by 61 percent. However, because of the production processes and the generation of electricity required to charge these vehicles, they cannot claim (声称) to be completely emission-free. That said, as many countries continue to increase their use of renewable energy sources, electric vehicles will become even cleaner.