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Just wondering if anyone gives their child a weekly allowance?
If you do, how much do they get, and what is expected to be done for that allowance?
I have a 4 and 6 yr old and I think that I should start my 6 yr old soon...
I also think that some type of chores should be done to earn this...
What do you guys think?
I don't give allowances . That being said , I also don't just hand over money freely . Chores are part of being in a family. If my son wants a couple bucks to go to the store then fine. He does well in school, he's a polite kid who helps out in the home, even just on his own he'll tidy up. Now if he wants to save up to buy something or gist or whatever a job shall be thought of and price agreed upon. He does however start a newspaper route in a week so he'll have his own money and he's already a bit of a hoader with his $.
Good for you Jenna, it sounds like you have a wonderful son :)
Still not sure what I am going to do...
I want my kids to be good with money, and now of days with all of the plastic, most don't understand the value of money IMO...
harkat: i think if you can afford it, kids should be given an allowance as long as they are doing some age appropriate responsibilities. And to the question of how much? well, I read somewhere that $1 per year of life per week is reasonable. I just wish i could afford to give my 11 year old that every week.
But if you think about it. If you do pay them that, then when they want that can of pop, or choc bar when your out, or $ store item, they can purchase it themselves. so really, i probably spend that on him every week in extras anyway.
your son sounds like mine he his the same way, the only differece is he has a job at macdonalds and is 15 he has all ready bought in 4 months a snowmachine and a motocycle so when he goes next may for his 365 he hads the bike and it is paid for,now his goal is to save up for a truck:-~(you think he was 30 lol)Quote:
Originally Posted by jenna321
"Super Nanny" says $1 per age of child. They can be given some age appropriate chores and earn some allowance to save or buy a "treat".
I agree with this and intend to use this idea when the time is right.....when is the time right?
I do not give allowances out either...I have a 14 yr old who does a lot of chores (dishes, vaccuums, cleans yard etc) A 10 yr old who is starting to do more chores (sets table, clears table, sweaps , looks after lizard ,etc) and an 8 yr old who will help with everything(washes the car, cleans windows, feeds dogs etc) All three are responsible for their own rooms as well. And all three do age apropriate chores. I clean the floors and the bathroom and the more "intense" stuff LOL
When I kids want o go somewhere with their friends (movie, pool , Bday party etc) i will give them the money they need as long as there chores are done.
With a family of 5 soon to be 6 everyone has to help out. My kids also help with dinner, garden work, and always help bring in groceries.
If chores are not done they do not get their extra privelages. Most chores only need to be done weekly, some daily. When school starts back homework is always first then I get a little more lax about chores. But I still expect them done on the weekend. :)
I don't give my kids an allowance, but I put $10 in a bank account for them every week. This way when they want something the can pay (well I move the money around). This summer I gave them $150 from their accounts to spend on what ever they wanted since we were not going on a trip. My DS (8) has spent all his money while the DD (10) still has $50 left.
They also get gift cards from my parents for their birthdays and Christmas (they still get gifts too) and they have learnt to save for what they want.
They do however get an allowance at their fathers place and it is based on chores. The more they do, the more they get. Chores at my place are just a part of living.
See I agree that chores should be mandatory after all a family is a team, and teamwork is how a home runs smoothly.
That said, I do not carry cash around and only have plastic.
My biggest concern is to teach them the value of money and the importance of saving up for things you really want.
I worry that they will see me spending on my debit card and think that money is a never ending source which it isn't.
I think that I will try the dollar per year thing, and see how that works.
Neither one of my daughter need nor want for anything, but I am not so sure that I am doing right with this...
I find when my kids have money it is stressful....My 14 yr old(Daughter) spends it quickly. My 10 yr old(son) can not ever make his mind up and takes forever to pick something out, even holds up lineups to run back and change his mind and my 8 yr old son loses it and cries because he can not find it . LOL!
When I say stressful I mean for me and them LOL!
Plus...sorry thought about this after. My kids get money from other stuff, My daughter Babysits my boys get money from the toothfairy and all three get money and gcs from family.
well, another thought if you do do the allowance thing, strongly encourage them to deposit half into a bank account. and let them watch it grow. some kids don't need much to spend on.
there was a free software (trial) for kids that set up an acct, it was kewl. showed their allowance how much would be saved, if it would be matched by parents at a certain pt, or allowed to earn interest.
very visual, ryan really liked it til the trial ran out :(
he ended up using his savings to fix that room he destroyed.
My 6 year old is very anxious to get her own account, so I am going to do this :)
Hopefully it will teach her the value of a dollar by going this route.
Thanks for all of your help and suggestions you guys...
I truly appreciate it!!!
Wow, some great advice. My son is almost 10 and hounding me.....even about an hour ago to get an allowance. I tend to give him or buy him things quite frequently. Too frequently I think. He is under the impression I should just give him money and he won't have to do anything. I have tried to explain that he is a member of this house and if he helps out and gets things done, then we have more time to spend together as a family. He gets other rewards though.....tv, game privileges, outings etc. It is a great debate. My hubby and I are trying to get a happy medium on this subject.......
Found this old thread while looking for discussions about allowances.
Very interesting.
We used to get 25 cents back in the day, and it was like gold! I used to get 2 dimes and a nickel, while my 3 older siblings got a quarter and I always teased them that I had more money than they did! lol
Oh, nadia that's funny!
I remember getting 35 cents - a movie was 25 cents and popcorn was 10 cents, so sometimes I blew it all on a Saturday afternoon! Otherwise, popsicles were seven cents, comics were 12 cents, chips and chocolate bars were 10 cents - so it all depended upon where we wanted the money to go! Mind you, you could get a HUGE bag of penny candy for 10 cents!
With our son, we never, ever tied allowance to chores or (oh, horror!) grades....
When our son was 'of age' to help out around the house (which included cleaning up toys, and even folding washcloths and pairing socks around two years old) - and in years later, it was always the policy that everyone in the family did chores to help out around the house. There were a few exceptions when our son got older if it were a big job (like doing most of the work getting bottles ready for recycling, so he'd get a cut on the deposit returned).
When he was younger, we would just buy him treats and little toys once in a while. We were quite low income then...
But there comes a certain age - 10? when they need a bit of 'walking around' money, so we'd give $5/week and see how that went.
I will NEVER forget (and neither will he) the time when our son learned The Big Money Lesson. He rarely spent all of his money each week - saved it up - and once went with two other friends to the mall for a few hours (not sure of the age, maybe 11 or 12?). He came home so sad and almost crying - he had blown $20 bucks on arcade video games and junk food - and KNEW it was the wrong thing to do... but did it 'just because'.... so we had a great talk, and it was truly a good lesson learned for him.
I dont give my kids an allowance, but I pay them for their grades - if they make 80% or better DH & I give them $20. If they do work around the house (cleaning/fixing their rooms, vacuuming, etc..) I will give them $5. When we go out we usually pay for everything so they really dont need an allowance, and if they want to go out with friends we usually give them some "walking around" money for snacks or beverages. My 13 yr old DD is great with money - shes a great little saver. My 15 yr old DS, however, could take a lesson from her younger sister.
I give my 5 year old a monthly allowance of $15. $5 is his "mad money" which he can spend whenever he wants on whatever he wants. $5 is for "planned spending" which he saves up to buy something that costs more money like a video game. And the last $5 is for "giving" which he buys his own birthday or Christmas presents for family (like from the Dollar store).
The purpose of giving him an allowance is to teach him about money and how it works. I want him to get the concept of "saving" right from the start so he develops good financial management that will hopefully carry through to adulthood.
I don't believe in tying the allowance to chores, but if he wants to earn more money when he's older I have a plan for that. I will post a list of things that need to be done on the fridge with payment of each so he will get the concept of working to earn money. I plan to teach my kids about finances and be very open about our household budget and how things work when they are old enough to understand.
We were given an allowance as children, it was in England so the amounts mean nothing, but we were expected to save half of it and we could spend the other half as we wished. We got our allowance on Saturday but only after we had done our homework and chores, so we had to earn it. If we wanted more money to do something that week, we could do extra chores around the house unless it was something my parents agreed was worth taking from our savings
I agree with the $1 for every year. My son is 5 and we are going to start $5 for him and now he doesn't want to spend it on lunches on Friday (used to be $5 at school). So now he will appreciate the money, before he just expected $5 from us for lunch, now if he wants it he will have to spend half of his allowance on it and now thinking twice about it. This way I might be saving some money :)
How about high school kids?
I live near a private high school and it seems like every day at lunch time I see them eating out at the different restaurants in the area.
Until I was 12 I got $3.50 a week, and then my dad came home and told me his coworker thought he was a miser because his kids got $20. So he started giving me $12.50, of which $5 went into long term savings.
When my daughter is older I intend to give her $1 per year of age, but she has to save 50%. We'll do a mini-budget together, and she can have 50% to spend, 25% in short term savings (a doll, a DVD) and 25% in long term savings for her education or something similar. I don't expect her to understand the power of compound interest, investments (and dividends), etc. at this point, but I want to slowly introduce her to these concepts. I've always found that I pay more attention when it's my money involved, and I hope she'll care when she realises the things she can do and buy.
Closer to University I want to match her long term savings dollar for dollar, because although I'll likely have the money to pay her way through University I think it's her responsibility to finance her education. (But that hasn't stopped me from setting up her RESP before she could crawl and contributing every month, lol. I'm a sucker for a nice tax shelter.)
** I wouldn't expect her to buy all of her toys with her own money (though I use a toy lending library, they're amazing.) I just don't want her to load up on candy.
Never had an allowances but got money when I needed it. And saved up all my gift money when I was a kid. I am a good spender now that Im older. I think if you want to why not.
No tax shelter there, although there are other benefits (like the free money the government gives you, based on your contributions).Quote:
Originally Posted by Katyana08
I'd love to think that I'd be able to pay my DS's way through university. But since it's estimated that an undergrad degree will cost about $100K by the time my DS gets there, pretty unlikely despite all we have saved now (he's four).
We haven't started an allowance yet, but we probably will once he turns five.
Z