At what age did you start allowance? Mine are 4 and 2. In your universe I’d give $ to my 4 yo, what about the 2 yo? What happens when 4 yo wants to spend his money and 2 yo doesn’t have any? Argh, the complications … right now no one gets anything
Well, my 3 and 4 year old children do get an allowance, but mostly it is because they have older siblings and we didn’t want them to feel left out. When my oldest children were that age they didn’t get an allowance. I really didn’t even consider it.
Having said that, since we do not give cash, but rather put the money into a bank account, I don’t see any reason not to start. We also put any birthday or holiday money they get from friends and relatives into their accounts. My kids have loved seeing the balance grow.
I encourage long term saving. We do not run out every week with fists full of dollar bills looking for things on which to spend money. Being able to see that one weeks worth of chores gets them x number of dollars. They are able to figure out how many weeks of chores they will need to do to earn enough money for an item they want. Funny how suddenly having to do chores for a month to get a toy, usually makes the toy less desirable.
Isn’t that one of our goals as parents to raise discerning consumers?
I like, too, the bank account idea-at least for the majority of my kids’ money…with just a little “pocket cash” on hand.
I’ve been too lazy, though, and not started their savings accounts at banks.
And to answer your parting question…
…undoubtably, YES.
Comment by Gina... — February 13, 2008 @ 12:34 pm
Ah good. we hadn’t started our 3 year old on any allowance and I was wondering if I should. I think maybe I’ll wait until she’s like “Hey! What’s this allowance thing the other kids are talking about?”
Comment by Brigitte — February 14, 2008 @ 11:29 am
My son is 5 and gets 1.00 a week….is this too much ? I don’t take off his allowance for bad deeds. Actually I plan on using handypoints for that purpose
Comment by Bella — February 26, 2008 @ 8:08 pm
Check the aproach of Love & Logic, I thnk is pretty neat, I still working on it myself.
Comment by ME — April 12, 2008 @ 12:24 am
I have a 6 year old son who gets £5 a week and he gets to spend £2-£3 of it and the rest gose to savings for a DS game, we only started giving him his own “pocket money” this year because he wants bigger more expensive iteams where as befor he only wanted sweets (candy) we will normaly buy it for him but only if he has been good.
Comment by Donna — April 14, 2008 @ 6:51 am
I GIVE ALL MY KIDS MONEY FOR DOING THEIR CHORES. MY 5 YEAR OLD GETS 5.00 MY 3 YEAR OLD GETS 3.00 AND MY ONE YEAR OLD GETS 1.00 I TELL THEM WHEN YOU GET OLDER YOU CAN GET 5.00. THEN I SAY NO ONE CAN GET MORE THEN 5.00. SO THEY ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO SPEND.
Comment by mdilley — May 17, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
I GIVE MINE MONEY IF THEY DO WHAT IS ON THEIR CHORE LIST. EVERY FRIDAY THEY GET THEIR MONEY BUT THEY HAVE TO SAVE IT ALL UNTIL THEY GET WANT THEY HAD POINTED OUT.NOW THEY WILL KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO SAVE MONEY.
Comment by mdilley — May 17, 2009 @ 12:24 pm
My son is almost 8 now and my daughter 5. Since starting on handipoints…now they decide their goals to be reached and how many points to reach each goal I decide…once they reach so many points I let them pick which goal they want. Sometimes they pick the allowence (son $10 daughter about $2) other times they choose one of the other goals instead. I think its nice for them to be able to pick…and this way they are not so gready with money…my kids know already that money dosnt get u happiness…and they love doing things as a family more
Comment by cristy — May 18, 2009 @ 10:00 pm
my dughter is 12. i have given her an allounce for 4 years now. i do not feel that younger than that they need an allounce as thy have everything they need. at that age they are too young for toys such as a D.S and my husband and i have decided together when is appropiate to buy them a soft toy or lego they want. although learning about money is inmportant i do not feel that their lives should revolve around it at such a young age. i prefere to do it on behavoir and if they see something they like i may say something on the lines of, if you are good and eat all your vegatables for 3 weeks you can have it. if they fail to do so they will have to start again. things like candy are not a concern of mine as on my house we try to promote healthy eating. With my 12 year old we gve her money on a weeekly baisis and the amount depends on her behavoir again. in my house being grounded also means no allounce. i also forbid the money to be spent on candy howver it is up to her on how much she put in her bank account
Comment by Audry — July 27, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
Unfortunately, we have to accept that todays world is driven by money so we have to teach our children the relevance of money. Everyday they are bombarded with the fact that there are toys available everywhere – through tv, websites, out shopping in stores. I started an allowance for my daughter when she was 4 – she was told that she had to earn that money by helping mommy and doing things like being respectful etc. If she wanted a toy, and it wasn’t birthday, christmas or report card time, she had to buy it herself. If it was more than her weekly allowance, then she had to save. It has worked well for us as she does not expect to be just bought something just because its there …. unlike a lot of children I know.
Comment by Arwen — July 27, 2009 @ 11:09 pm