Allowance

[Marisa6826]

Do you remember at what age you got allowance (if you did at all)?

I was talking with Jonathan this morning, suggesting that we maybe start Sophie with allowance once she turns 5. I really want to impress upon her the importance of spending/saving/charity. My thinking was probably about $1/wk.

Also, is there a given ratio of how much should be allotted to spend/save/give?

TIA

-m

[lovin2shop]

I don't remember when I started getting an allowance, but we've been thinking about starting it up for Drew. My DH found these cool piggy banks that divide up the money between spend, save, give and invest. If you break the dollar into quarters, this work well with the different slots.

http://www.msgen.com/assembled/money_savvy_pig.html

My DH buys these to give to his clients with children. I'm sure that there are similar designs out there of the same concept.

I'll be curious to see what others have done for allowances!

[SnuggleBuggles]

No one in this house does regular chores b/c we just aren't organized so ds' main job is to clean his room weekly. Helping out is on an as needed/ as asked basis.

We were generous because ds wanted $5 a month. He can get that by cleaning his room very well by himself. If someone needs to help him he gets $1. Those numbers work for us, and for a new 5yo. We didn't start till just a few months ago.

We haven't started having him save yet. He is welcome to any $ he finds around the house and he usually puts that straight in his piggy bank. I save for him now (b-day $...). Charity, we donate together as a family.

Funny story about donating to charity...for his b-day he looked at one of his presents from us and said, "That looks like it was expensive. We should have used that money to donate to the rain forest instead." :) But, of course, when asked if we should just return the present and do that he said no since he already had it. It was pretty cute.

Beth

[shilo]

we were started at 5 with a quarter a week (it was circa 1981 tho, so i think a dollar sounds appropriate today). i think my mom introduced the idea of spending now vs. saving it up for something bigger right away. investing came a few years later - 7 or 8 i think. i still had my original disney shares from that age when we got married and put them into our down payment on our first house - pretty cool. we tended to do more volunteering time for charities while growing up - it was a regular part of our month. the donation part came much later - maybe high school for me i think?

hth, lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[BeachBum]

Clark Howard, the financial radio talk show host, suggests giving kids $1 per year of age. I think that he encourages the parents to make the kids pay for at least some of their "entertainment" expenses. So if they want to ride the train at the mall or get an ice cream they need to make a choice on which to spend their money on.
It also allows them to save up for toys, (meaning in 1 month they could buy that Barbie) vs saving just going into "long term" savings never to be seen again.
I think he also says that allowance should be given with no strings attached, but kids could do extra chores to earn more money. But cleaning your room for example isn't optional, and allowance isn't a reward for doing it.

I haven't read his book, Clark Smart Kids, in a long time but I'll try to refresh on his other tips for allowance. We aren't there yet so I didn't pay it a lot of attention.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

we started at age 1, and she gets a dollar for every year of age. I did the same with my son, but I don't remember what age we started. Allowances stop at age 16 and you get a job. (which my son just did)

the rules are:

1. allowances are not tied to chores. You do chores because you are a member of this family. You get money because you are a member of the family. You don't get the option of choosing to give up your allowance to get out of chores.

2. on vacation, allowances are doubled, just because it's fun

3. if you choose to put any of your allowance in savings in the bank, we match it at 50%. Any withdrawals must be parent-approved and can only be for half or less of your total balance

4. If you are grounded during allowance day, you get no allowance for that week. It's part of the penalty whereby certain rights are suspended.

5. on your 16th birthday, allowance stops. Get a job!

Logan's allowance goes in the bank. I meant to start giving it to her in cash when she turned 4, but I forgot about it. This thread reminded me.

[stella]

Wade (6) and Anna (4) get $5 a week. When they beg me to buy them something at Target (Doc Ock for him, Lip Smackers for her), I tell them that they are welcome to use their money to buy that item. Wade is very smart about it and saves his money in a wallet. then he talks Anna into giving him her $$, so we really have to monitor that - and I have actually started to just keep her allowance in a ziploc and give it to her when we are in a store and she wants to make a purchase.

It works very well when the ice cream truck drives down our street - neither of them really wants to spend their $$ on that when we have popsicles in the freezer, and it has cut waaaayyy back on the whining and begging when we are out.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I really like your rules. :)

Beth

[urquie]

we got $1 per year of age.

my friends split their money this way (per dollar)-
$.25 donate to church
$.25 save (for school??)
$.50 do with as they please

[Marisa6826]

Karen-

Those are great rules. Did you come up with them on your own or did your find a book/website pertaining to money and kids?

Thanks for the ideas

-m

[michellep]

Great rules! We're figuring this out here as well.

One question...who pays for gifts for other people, like if they're going to a friend's birthday party?

I was looking at the Share/Save/Spend banks and was thinking of dividing allowance up equally between the 3 and saying the share money is for gifts as well as charity. Not sure though if I like this idea...

Thanks!

-M

[C99]

thx for asking! i hadnt thought abt it yet and it looks like we should talk abt it!

[Momof3Labs]

DS1 gets $1/week, plus he gets a quarter every morning he wakes up dry (not fully night-trained yet). He puts it in his piggy bank, and we encourage him to save it for larger purchases. Some weeks, it burns a hole in his pocket, but I find that reminding him about a larger goal helps him get past that urge. Sometimes it doesn't, and his money is spent as fast as it came in.

We haven't gotten to the charity part yet, nor longer term savings. Maybe when he turns 5 (plus I feel like we'll need to up his allowance in order to do all that).

[stillplayswithbarbies]

#5 was my mom's idea, although she now claims she doesn't remember telling me that. I remember it! I wouldn't have got a job at the local Dairy Queen clone at 15 if I wasn't about to lose my allowance LOL

The rest I made up on my own, it just seems logical to me and has worked for the last 16 years. My parents didn't tie allowance to chores, but they did try an incentive plan where I got $1.25 per day that my room was clean by bedtime and I had to buy all my own clothes with that money. But most of the time I chose not to bother and forego the money and then I learned to be a smart shopper so I guess it did teach me something.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

#5 was my mom's idea, although she now claims she doesn't remember telling me that. I remember it! I wouldn't have got a job at the local Dairy Queen clone at 15 if I wasn't about to lose my allowance LOL

The rest I made up on my own, it just seems logical to me and has worked for the last 16 years. My parents didn't tie allowance to chores, but they did try an incentive plan where I got $1.25 per day that my room was clean by bedtime and I had to buy all my own clothes with that money. But most of the time I chose not to bother and forego the money and then I learned to be a smart shopper so I guess it did teach me something.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I do. I consider that a family expense.

By the way, DH and I get an allowance too. It keeps us from freaking out at each other for buying stupid stuff. ;)

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I do. I consider that a family expense.

By the way, DH and I get an allowance too. It keeps us from freaking out at each other for buying stupid stuff. ;)