Allowance Questions

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-2008
Allowance Questions
7
Mon, 09-21-2009 - 1:47pm

Some recent discussions (both here and at our house) have me trying to come up with a workable allowance strategy to help educate our kids about both the value of work and the value of money and budgeting now so they can avoid so many of the debt problems that plague too many people later.


Community Leader
Registered: 07-26-1999
Mon, 09-21-2009 - 3:03pm

This is a sticky subject at our house because DH

Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-14-2008
Mon, 09-21-2009 - 4:25pm

This is a tricky one and so depends on each family and child for that matters. You will figure out what works for you.

My two kids ages 12 & 9 are very different. The older one does so much more than the younger one thus I give him more money. Oldest one gets $10 a week and youngest gets $3. Now to be fair they are not at my house all the time as they live 50% of the time with their dad so I give that to them on the weekends that I have them. What their dad's system is I have no idea. There are certain chores that are theirs alone including vacuuming, sweeping the kitchen floor and washing it. Setting the table and cleaning up their rooms. We live rurally so my oldest burns our garbage and the youngest takes out our compost bucket and dumps it. I really hate it when they complain the entire time they are doing their jobs. I reserve the right to take back money for this behavior, I pay in in cash. The older one has caught onto the fact that I give extra bonus money for jobs that are done without reminding and no complaining.

This is all I can handle at the moment as I have two boys and I am lucky if I can even get them to put the toilet seat down so I don't fall into it in the middle of the night and basic showering!!


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-26-2009
Mon, 09-21-2009 - 4:53pm

I started getting an allowance when I was about 5. It wasn't tied to chores, those were required anyway. It was also never with held as punishment except to pay back something specific like breaking someone else's belongings.


We tried giving our kid an allowance and it never took. He never remembered to ask for it and I never remembered to give it to him and so... we just don't. When he wants something reasonable he gets it and we talk about money and budgeting so he understands the concepts.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-21-2004
Mon, 09-21-2009 - 7:30pm

Me & my sister always received an allowance growing up - I don't remember the amount when we were younger but when we were teenagers we got $20.00 a week.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Tue, 09-22-2009 - 9:04am

Allowance started when our son was old enough to understand the value of money, how it worked and how to budget it. I want to say he was around nine years old.

I never tied allowance to chores. Chores are required as a member of the family. In our home, the family works together to for the good of the entire family without there being something "in it" for them.
Allowance is just that. Money I "allow" my son to have to learn to manage money and maintain a budget.

I gave allowance on a monthly basis rather than weekly and it was given in cash. With it he was expected to tithe, to manage all his personal entertainment expenses, personal purchases, as well as gift giving and planning for outings.

It's worked well for us. Our son is almost 16 and is good at looking ahead at what is coming up and always thinks before spending money. He also gives himself an "allowance" from the money he has for free spending (mountain dew slushies being a particular weakness of his).

stacy

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Tue, 09-22-2009 - 9:21am

I read something about this once and I can't remember the specifics or where I read it, but it stuck with me and made sense. Before reading the article I thought as most people do that kids should be paid for chores that they do and if they don't do them, they don't get paid. But this article talked about how, as adults, we go to a job and get paid. A child's job is to go to school and do a few chores. I also agree with the other posters that I mainly want to give him an allowance so he'll learn about money. I've also heard that you should pay them by their age, a dollar per year. I have not had the ability to give my children allowance because I've been struggling with money for so long. But I'm finally coming out and have a little to spare. My son just turned 11 this week and we went to our bank and set up a bank account. I also set up a seperate savings account. I'm going to set up an automatic withdrawal from my account into his for 11 dollars a week. I set up online banking too so he can see his balances. He has decided to save half of what he earns. I will be getting an ATM card with my name on it and a pin. I can take cash out for him and show him how to use quicken to keep track of his balance. This is all theoretical at this point, but I'm hoping that he can learn how to save, how to keep track of how much money he has. How an ATM card isn't free money, it's cash! And how to use Quicken which has been a lifesaver for me!

I'll let you guys know how it goes!

 
Abbie

 




Edited 9/22/2009 9:30 am ET by abigailnh2
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Thu, 09-24-2009 - 2:19pm

Dave Ramsey has a good money program for children and talks a lot about allowances on his site.


I give our teens $20 each.