How Much Allowance for What Age?

[scottcooks]

My kids need an allowance. They are only 4 and 5, but need to start developing and learning their own financial habits.

I'm leaning toward 50cents per year-old, ($2 for the 4 year old, $2.50 for the 5 year old) given each week, given in appropriate change and setting up 'forced' savings, family tax and church tithing.

What do you do?

 

[kcjodih]

We give a dollar per year of age and then in small bills/coins. 20% for forced savings, 20% for tithing and the rest is theirs. So my 11 yo DS gets $11. Then $2.20 in the bank and another $2.20 for the church. The remaining $6.60 is his to do as he chooses.

 

[tlag1986]

I like the idea. If you have specific chores they can do.

 

[myinnerchef]

My kids did not get an allowance until they were in school. It's not like they needed spending money or anything. Once they were in school, it was $1 per grade level. Jodi: the word tithe is from the Old English word for 'tenth'. So if tithing is 10%, you're quinting (not tithing). ;-) Maybe the math is different in Canadian dollars.

 

[cookingwith_tara]

Scott, I think what you're doing is wonderful. It's great to start them young on all of those concepts. I'm teaching my nephew, who I"m homeschooling and is in 1st grade, the 3 areas of money - , Giving to God first, sharing, and saving. I make sure to give it to him in a way that he can count, for himself, what he's going to give as his tithe. He does little things like feed and water the dog, feed the turtles, water the plants outside, and help with lunch. We have a chore chart which is just like our goal card for school. Once he's completed the things on the chart or card HE gets to mark it off. He's learning what it means to work and earn. And, to just be 8 years old, he gets it!

 

[cookingwith_tara]

I give him 25cents for every chore completed. Since I'm only the Aunt, I won't force the chores on him but I give him the opportunity to 'earn' the money. Every week we start a new chart whether last week's was completed or not. Then he sees for himself that he didn't finish everything and, on his own, works harder to remember. I see this with the expression on his face. He has the opportunity to earn $1.00 per day and he's knows it. Sometimes he will ask me how much he's earned so far and together we go to the back of the notebook where I keep track of it and we'll count. It' a good feeling to see his little face light up.

 

[jwpamp]

Scott, before you start giving an "allowance", read information about this subject on Real Debt Help - Get out of debt with Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Plan.He suggests that children earn "commission"....for doing specific jobs around the house.He also has a Financial Peace Jr. Kit (in the Online Store) that has books and envelopes in it for the kids. One envelope is for Saving, one for Spending and one for Giving. It teaches them the basics of money handling. It's never to early to start. Please consider this before you just go handing out money for no specific reason. I wish I had known about this when my children were young!!!!

 

[etteluap70PC]

I have not read the responses.
We do a chore chart. It is a magnetic board.
My 7 yr old gets .10$ per star per chore. Some things are expected and are marked at the top of the chart. Some are optional. If it an expected chore like keeping her laundry picked up and it does not get done she get's a black mark and looses .05$. We total her up once a week.

We need to get 3 banks going for give/save/spend. I think it will hepl tons with the $ management.

Hardest part with any system is keeping up with it.

I like our system. You can always tell when Sammie is saving up for something. There are lots of stars!

 

[Deeder]

We don't do an allowance. Our daughter has certain chores around the house that she has to do as a part of this family. She *HAS* to keep her room clean, empty the silverware from the dishwasher, put away her clean clothes, tidy up the shoes at the front door and take the family dog out each morning. Then if she would like a "job" to earn money she can check the job list. On it we list different jobs that need doing. She gets paid for each job. For example -gathering the garbage on garbage day pays 25 cents, -setting/clearing table pays 50 cents, wiping down baseboards in living room, pays 75 cents... etc. That way she has control over what she earns. She is starting to understand that if you don't do the job you don't get paid. She's 7 this summer and we've been doing this for 3 years now. It's working well.

 

[heat123]

We don't give allowance yet either and my daugther is going to be 7 this summer. She has to keep her room clean and now has to pick up after the two puppies we just got(part of the agreement for getting them). She'd be happy with $1 a week, if we gave it to her for her "chores". lol

 

[cookingwithkelly]

We follow Dave Ramsay and have been using his Commission Charts and Financial Peace Jr. curriculum with our 7 and almost 5 yr olds- it's great! What I like most is that it uses "fines" for bad behaviors (which we decide upon ahead of time w/ our children)- so they loose their money when they do not do what is expected of them. Works so much better than "time-outs!" Both of our kids love the system and it's easy to track- plus we get the much needed help around the house from their chores!!:love::love: