If you’re a bank looking to woo the next generation of savers, I have one piece of advice for you: Don’t skimp on the candy. My 10-year-old daughter and I recently embarked on a learning adventure to obtain a savings account for her. Along the way, I learned the correct way to do a fist bump, discovered a little history about John Paul Jones and got some keen insight into just how much my daughter understands about the banking system.

You don’t necessarily need to panic the very first time you miss a monthly credit card payment. Most banks and issuers don’t report a newly delinquent customer immediately to the major credit bureaus, especially if the missed payment is out of character. Here’s a rundown on how the major banks and credit card issuers will handle your first missed payment.

“My piggy bank is not big enough.” That’s likely to evoke tears of joy from parents of financially-diligent children. When it’s time to step into the real world of banking, these money-savvy kids may encounter some banks that make saving even more motivating, educational and rewarding.

Health and retirement benefits aren't available to a large portion of small-business employees, which leaves these workers vulnerable to financial disasters. Intuit is addressing this problem with two recent products -- a health debit card and a 401(k) service.

When you walk into your bank branch's lobby, it's not likely you feel particularly inspired. Is your branch yet another box of stucco wedged between the Panda Express and the Quizno's? If it were to pick up and leave, could it be easily replaced by an Aesop's Tables? And you're giving these tasteless people all your money?

The way credit unions are spreading across the country, you might think the banking industry is trying to make a zombie movie. For years, these locally owned institutions were considered nothing more than a benign tumor on an otherwise Wall Street-dominated market. They were the outdated country cousins of the big banks that dominated finance. Recently, though, things have changed. A new wave of anti-corporate sentiment has galvanized these once-forgotten credit unions, and now they're rising up out of the dirt, feasting on the accounts of disgruntled young professionals and, *gasp*, multiplying.

Total student loan debt in the U.S. has reached a disturbing milestone -- the $1 trillion mark. And if you want to know how it's possible that we got ourselves into so much debt, you need look no further than a recent study that found a majority of students don’t understand the terms of their loans.

With the banking industry all topsy-turvy these days, it's hard not to long for the days when the industry was simpler, gentler. Of course this would be misplaced nostalgia, as so much nostalgia is. The banking industry has taken our economy for a ride in the past, too. But with so much of our lives being digitized, it's easy to look fondly toward the past and old objects, forgetting the more atrocious aspects of times past. No, we don't long for the days of segregation in the South, but we do like old-timey diners.

If you're a young person, you may have noticed a petition making the rounds on various social networks calling for support of the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012. The bill, introduced by Rep. Hansen Clarke of Detroit, Mich., aims to "make student loan repayment both simple and fair," and it aims to do so by writing down a substantial portion of federal student debt by forgiving outstanding balances after a decade of payments at a certain percentage of income.

If your income is below a certain level, you won't be invited to some places: black-tie galas, prime rib night at the country club, presidential campaign fundraising dinners, and the like. But recent news suggests that your friendly nationwide retail bank might not want you around, either, even though you bank with them. And as banks shun the less-than-wealthy and close underperforming branches, it's elderly people who will be hurt.