My oldest son is five. He’s gotten to the point where he wants things. And his birthday and Christmas are over. He’s already proven that he has the self control and discipline to save up for things.
But he has no income.
I would like to start developing in him the discipline to save and to choose wisely how to spend his money.
So, I was wondering, do any of you give your children allowances?
If so, at what age did you start?
Did you have your child do chores to earn the allowance?
How much did you give?
And what do you do about the younger siblings? Do they all start getting an allowance now?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so please share!!
We started an allowance for The Girl when she turned four. We opened a bank account for her and she gets $.50 a week not much at all and so it requires long term saving for any significant purchase.
ReplyDeleteWe're debating allowances now: our oldest is 7, younger is 5, and youngest is 2. Thinking older 2 each get an allowance, which is comprised partly of regular income to let them worry about saving/tithing/spending, and partly of you can earn X by doing Y chores. (Note that we're not intending to pay for ALL chores, on the idea that there's some stuff you've just gotta do to do your part around the house. But some chores are viewed as "helping" Mommy and Daddy, and thus worth $$.) Hoping that this blend offers both money management opportunities, and "reward of hard work" opportunities. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteTuning in with no advice (for once)...
ReplyDeleteWell, ummm, we have no experience in this area, but we do plan to give our children an allowance when they are a bit older...
ReplyDelete...and at that point, we will probably be calling you to talk about it, LOL!
A friend of ours does this with her kids and we adopted it: We give our 8yr old an allowance. $2/week. He gets a dollar bill and 4 quarters. One quarter 'has to' go into tithe/charity (our friends match what their kids put into charity and they save up for a big purchase - like buying a goat for a 3rd world village or something) and one quarter 'has to' go into savings. The rest is up to him. The interesting thing is that he has been doubling it and putting $.50/week into both tithe & savings since January. He then just uses the $1/week to go in his spending account.
ReplyDeleteWe have been debating when to start our other kids (girls, ages 6 and 4) as they now see their big brother get an allowance each week. Some of it comes down to budgeting - b/c I don't always have the funds to do this.
We haven't tied it to chores, but we did explain that we would evaluate whether he was having a good attitude about stuff around the house and if he was being a good steward of his money as time went on. (We haven't had to fully define what that looks like for him b/c he's super thoughtful, but I imagine we will with the girls... they're dreamers. )
Oh my goodness! It had not occurred to me that my five year old might be old enough for an allowance. I will have to give this some thought.
ReplyDeletei love what suzanne is doing in her home! sounds great! i have no great ideas, just some personal experience to share. we were given an allowance as kids based on doing chores around the home. i personally (not speaking for other members of the household) didn't learn to value hard work this way. i learned that i only had to do chores when i wanted some mulah. i think there should definitely be some "must-do" chores.
ReplyDeleteKeith and I have talked about this and decided to wait....at least for now. I'm interested to see what others have to say about it, too.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of an allowance to start teaching them about the value of a dollar early.
ReplyDeleteYour son is so mature for his age so I'm sure he would benefit from such a learning experience.
I like the idea of an allowance having some chores and good behavior/attitude to go along with it, but I also like the idea of kids having chores that they don't expect to be paid from doing. So that part starts to get a little fuzzy for me.
Which also makes me wonder, "Is Noah old enough to take the trash out yet??"
Can't wait to hear about your decision regarding the subject.
ps. I also like the idea of having to tithe a portion of the allowance...what a great habit to get into young!
I'm a bit undecided on the issue. I'm leaning against allowance, at least until they are quite a bit older. We'll see. If we end up doing allowance I'm definitely following my friend's lead and teaching the kids the first 10% gets given away and then half goes in long term savings. The rest can be spent as they want.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to remember to come back to this post to see what good advice others had to offer. We're not at this stage yet.
ReplyDelete