How Much Money Does A Kid Need?

Allowances have always seemed like a good idea to me. They have always seemed like an excellent way to teach kids about money. About responsibility. About spending and saving and all of those kinds of things. I have always known that I plan to give my kids an allowance. And that was pretty much all I ever thought about it. I knew I would do it one day. Decision made. End of thought.

Except that now Big Brother is getting older and I am left to wonder when and how much. Hubby and I have started to discuss this. I am arguing for $5 per week. Hubby is feeling like it should be $2 per week. I think that is not enough. That it is so small it will take him an impossible amount of time to save for anything he might want. Hubby thinks that if Big Brother gets $5 per week he will have so much money (for a little kid) that he will miss the whole point. So, we are at an impasse. Maybe he is too young. Maybe that is the problem. Maybe he is too young. Maybe in a year or two the number will be clear.

But since I am always interested in your advice my Aloha Friday question for this week is at what age do you think a child should start getting an allowance and how much do you think they should get?
Posted on 2/04/2010 Labels: ,

34 Comments:

  1. I am not sure about allowance any more. I think there are just family responsibilities that need to be done. As children grow up these change. What is Big Brother doing to earn the money? Is there room to grow from here since he is on the young side. Our oldest is 6 and does not have an allowance. We have done things in the past where he can earn some money to spend, but not an allowance per say. When we went to Disney in May he took his money and bought a special something and asked to save the rest. Good luck with your decision.
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  2. We did an allowance briefly with our son starting around age 5, he got $1 a day based on chores, but we don't do it anymore. He may get an allowance back when he's older though.
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  3. hmm...8or9.I'm sure how much!!stop by later my Aloha isn't up yet
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  4. I was just thinking about this today! Mason has finally started helping around the house today. He cleaned up his toys twice, and he even helped me wipe the table before dinner. I was thinking of doing like a quarter per task, or a non-monetary form of compensation like a day at Chuck-E-Cheese after so many tasks have been completed. Obviously I'm still working on ideas!
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  5. We tried the allowance on per amount and we couldn't keep up. We finally just let him pick something out here and there that he really wants when he's been doing a great job in everything. He's 9. It works well for us and we don't have to worry about amounts. He puts all cash he receives as gifts in his savings.
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  6. I never gave any of my children allowances. They were expected to help out as part of the family.
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  7. wow....with a 2 year old I haven't really thought about it. I do think at an early age it should be discussed so that they can learn the different things they should do with money.....save, charities, etc.
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  8. I call our oldest son "Big Brother" on our blog too.

    We have recently arrived at this exact same situation.

    We give $5. He can loose dollars for specific things not done (such as if he doesn't practice the piano that day). And, the deal is, we still pay for basic clothing, school supplies, school fees, sports or club fees, piano lessons. But he now gets to pay for anything else that he wants. Presents for birthday parties, going to the movies with his friends, a specific brand of clothing ... he gets to pay for all of that himself now with his allowance. We give the allowance as a way to help him to learn to budget his wants. Now, if he says that he wants something we can just tell him to save up! It amounts to a possible $260 a year. That seems to be enough for him to save up for big purchases, even if it takes him a year or so, and also to take care of the little things along the way. With $2 a week it seems like you are just throwing money away because it would take forever for him to save up for anything or take care of his own wants. With the $5 you really can say "you have your own money" when he wants you to spot him for a movie or something.
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  9. I do not have kids so I probably should not be commenting, but I am going to say $5 a week.
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  10. I used to do allowance with my oldest boy we started him at $5 a week too. YOu need to have something to take away if he's not keeping up his chores. What's the big deal if you take a $1. when you get $2 allowance I mean really who cares but if your getting 5 and then take away $1 then Oh my gosh...kids get the picture.

    good luck
    HOPE you start a chart thingy too. Gives them something to work toward with a reward prize at the end
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  11. I guess it depends on how old Big Brother is-If he is less then 5 years old, I would say $2, but if he is older then 5, I would say $5 would be good. That way, you have good leverage if he behaves bad and as he grows up, he'll be able to save(hopefully he'll be a saver) and buy something if he really wants it.
    You can always monitor his spending and adjust the allowance if you feel it's being wasted.

    Have a wonderful Friday!
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  12. Age 5 is a good age to start when they can understand what it is about. It teaches them family responsibility.
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  13. Not having kids yet, but i know that i would want my kids to have chores for the money we will give them! And i say 8-9 is a good age for teaching a kid some money responsibilities!
    Good luck with that! Here's my Aloha!
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  14. We use to do allowance but that really doesn't teach them about "work for the money". So we stopped. Now we pay her for grades and work. And charge her if I have to do her chores. Seams to be working. The grade thing we just started. for every A she gets 20 dollars from me. Hubby give her a set amount for honor roll.
    Here's my Aloha Friday link for you
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  15. My oldest is only 3, so we haven't started with an allowance yet. And I'm torn, because I want my kids to know that they are expected to help around the house without earning any reward. Every one in our family is to contribute to the upkeep of the household. However, I also want to teach my kids about money and responsibility.
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  16. Maybe age 12. I'm not sure on the amount. Seems like kids do so much these days that the money spent on activities should be considered part of their allowance. In that case I think I'd give $2 and consider the rest on his activities.

    My Aloha Friday is here:
    http://newhorizonreviews.blogspot.com/2010/02/aloha-friday.html
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  17. I have mixed feelings about allowances. We have four children, and honestly, can't really afford to give them weekly allowances. I believe that they have an obligation to help out with chores as members of the family, not so that they can get paid. If our kids have done their jobs around the house and had good behavior, then we will give them money when they ask for a special outing or purchase they want to make. I think we are in the minority on this though. A lot of their friends get paid for everything they do - from taking out the trash to cleaning their room.
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  18. I have mixed feelings about allowances - but I really havent seriously thought about it yet - my kids are ages 4, 2 and 1. We did a brief period this past summer where my summer really want this specific toy, so we had him do "jobs" around the house where he would get paid - clearning the table at night, helping me fold laundry, putting his laundry away, etc. He earned very little over the course of the day (maybe $1 and it didn't happen every day). Over teh course of a few months he saved enough for his toy (which I was so surprised he remembered and still wanted sicne he was only 3 at the time). We don't do it anymore and I'm not sure what we'll do when he gets older. I feel that there are certain things that need to get done around the house and you shouldn't need to be paid to do it. I rarely got an allowance growing up and I knew that I needed to keep my room clean and had specific things to do in the house (I usually had the bathroom to clean, my sister had to vacuum, my brother had to do dishes). I don't know - it's a hard decision. Sorry to ramble on for so long - haha!
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  19. I don't know-My husband and I never had allowances when we were young and neither will our kids. I have NO CLUE what the "right amount" is.
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  20. grade school kids could get away with $3 a week but when they get older the allowance and the responsibility of it must go up
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  21. I've heard the age in year thing for some people. My kids never wanted to do the associated chores so they didn't get their allowance. Now, they have jobs.

    Have a great Friday!
    http://iamharriet.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-are-people-still-using-internet.html
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  22. I like the idea from one of your posters...make it $5 and reduce it if certain things do not get done that week. That way he has a goal...and know that if he does all his chores and responsibiltiies...he will get the "big money". ;-)

    I have no personal experience with this yet though, since my son is only 16mo and doesn't get paid an allowance for all the cooking and cleaning we make him do (LOL!). Just kidding.
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  23. I'm not big on allowances for kids at all. I don't think bribing them with money is a good way to teach them the value of money and for them to learn responsibility for their chores. It's just a part of growing up :) Have a great Friday
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  24. We aren't quite to this point yet (though Thing One is turning 4 next month, so I've been thinking about how we are going to do this...)

    My parents gave us chores and they gave us an allowance because we were part of the family. That's not to say they couldn't take away the allowance - why would you get the priviledges of a family if you aren't taking on the responsibilies of being part of a family? But everyone in the family got a little bit of spending money, not for chores, but because they were part of the family.

    We could also earn extra money by doing additional chores that would normally fall to someone else. I remember cleaning the bathroom for $0.75 (this was the mid- to late-80s, but I guess that was a lot! My mom must have hated cleaning the bathroom!)

    I think I plan on doing the same for my son, and I do think $5 a week is reasonable for that age. We'll probably open a bank account and he will be (hopefully) persuaded to tithe 10% and we will expect he saves another 10%, but he can do what he wants with the rest.

    As far as having an overflow of cash, well - my son LOVES Bacugan toys(or however you spell it!) and on sale one figure is $7-$10. So it will take him at least 2 weeks to save up for a new one - that's a long time for a preschooler or elementary schooler! Things are not cheap, so I don't think that if you have a child who is expected to pay for many of his own things that $5 a week will go far.

    We'll see how it goes, I guess! :P
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  25. We give ours $5. They have chores (granted each child should have chores) to earn this money. If we have to remind them or do it for them, we deduct from the allowance. We recently opened up savings accounts for them so they can learn about savings, giving, and spending. We even have them keep up with there ledger. We also teach them how being in debt is bad. If they borrow money from us, we give them two options. They can either decline borrowing from us or if they do borrow we charge them interest and must make payments weekly. If they are late or need to be reminded to pay us, we charge a penalty fee. Usually they decide that item isn't worth it and wait to save their own money for it.
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  26. I don't feel allowance should be tied to chores. Allowance is there pay for being a child. It is to teach them about the importance of saving and spending.
    Chores are a part of being a family. You are not paid to do them. You are expected to do them, not negotiable. No one ever offers me money to do the laundry, vacume, sweep or mop the floors. It just needs to be done. I feel chores are a responsibility that comes with being a part of the family. As you get older you get more responsibilities.
    Does Big Brother have any concept of money yet? If not then I think $2 is fine just to start with but if he knows that different things cost different amounts and that you need to save, then I think $5 is appropriate. If he has no clue that little toy car is a $1 and Lego is $15. Then he might be to young still. If that makes sense.
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  27. We have talked about this extensively in our home even though our son is 1, due to our own bad experiences as children.

    First, whatever you do, be consistent. Don't change the rules without a good reason, and don't do it very often.

    In general, we've come to the conclusion that allowances shouldn't be tied to normal chores - we all do chores like washing dishes, doing laundry, etc, because we're a part of the family.

    That said, if either DH or I were stay at home parents, we'd get money to spend as a part of the family (and we're both working out of the house right now, and we still get money that's ours to spend without limits), and so should our kids. Taking a SAHM's "allowance" away because the laundry isn't done today is just plain silly, don't you think?

    We intend to implement some rules - some amount must be saved out of each week's allowance, for example; no more than $X in the house, because keeping large sums of cash around isn't safe. As a child, I once had almost $150 in my piggy bank, in part because if I did put money in the bank, I wasn't allowed to take it back out, and again, this seems just silly (and caused quite a few fights when I was young).

    As to the amount...I think $1/year old is a fair amount. It's a lot for a small child, and not much for a teen, but I've always thought that teens ought to maybe have some responsibility for buying their own clothes and school lunches, so maybe an increase to cover those things, above and beyond the regular allowance, is warranted.
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  28. I'm not sure I have a good answer. My kids are only 4 & 3 right now, although my sister started giving my niece an allowance at 3 it seems a bit early for me.

    All the answers are interesting though! Great question.
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  29. I had an allowance starting at 5 and it was $5 a week. You think it would add up to much money for a young child, but make him tithe with his money and save part. Then the rest is his to do with as he wishes like rent a movie, buy a snack, so on.
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  30. Our oldest is about to turn 5 so I know this is on our horizon and soon...
    I think that we will give him a specific set of smaller chores to do that he will not be paid for (because everyone in the family needs to help out). To earn money, there will be a list of other chores, possibly worth different amounts depending on on how long the task takes or how difficult it is. I think after the age of 5 it's reasonable to make a dollar for every year old you are...so $5 for a 5 year old.

    For me, I guess it's not really an allowance because he is working for it and the amount can change weekly.
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  31. My kids are too young but this is a good question. I think it's really about what you can afford and making sure there's teachable life (and money) lessons along the way--if your kids aren't learning anything from it, there's no point.
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  32. Well how old is he? Maybe $1 for every year he is until he's around 12 or so and then he should go out and try working for others in the neighborhood doing yardwork and whatnot. That's what I did to make money as a teenager.
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  33. The family I nanny for tried allowance with the 7 year old and it went over her head. She didn't really get it so they stopped.
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  34. Thanks for the Friday Follow..right back at ya!
    I have always gone with a "both" approach to allowance. A little for just "being a kid" and a little for "doing the work". Maybe 2.50 a week just cuz, and $2.50 a week for doing some specific chores.... Then, start teaching them to save. If hubby thinks $5.00 is too much, have him start now saving 1/2 toward something BIG... I have just learned in the past 6 months that I did NOT teach that lesson well to my now 17 1/2 year old who thinks money will actually burn a whole in his wallet if he doesn't spend it on shoes or clothes!!!! It's never too early to start making that a habit!~
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Thanks for your kind words! I love hearing from you.

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