Another allowance question (well, two really)

[woolybear]

I asked before about chores connected with allowances. Now I have a couple of other questions.

 

If you give your children allowances, do you give different amounts for different ages (mine are 2 1/2 years apart.)

 

Do you suggest or "make" your kids save some of it?

 

TIA,

woolybear

[jenL]

:bigear:

[Pamela H in Texas]

We did 1/2 child's age when we did it. So a 6yr old gets $3. A 10yo gets $5.

 

We did not make child save. I have two conflicting thoughts about this.

 

1) If you allow kid to learn themselves (often waste at first then learn their lesson) then they are ahead of most adults because they learned it when it was safe to learn it (not with their first credit card and/or job.

 

2) If you really believe there is a correct formula (ala Dave Ramsey, for example), then it makes sense to teach your kid that from the get go. It would actually be harmful, imo, to go against that.

 

If you DID decide to do a portion, you might give them a RANGE suggestion instead of a set in stone (again, unless your belief *is* set in stone).

[matrips]

we do 50 cents for each year. they have a see through piggy bank that has four chambers (spend, save, donate, invest). they are encouraged to put something in each of them, but I do not oversee it.

[Laura Corin]

We give more for older children. They don't have to save money, but we give little enough that there's not much they can do with unsaved allowances.

 

Laura

[elegantlion]

We only have one but his pay has increased with age. He is required to save 10%. He is occasionally allowed to spend from his savings, only for larger items. We believe it is important to get into the habit of "paying yourself first" and also how to live on less than 100% of your income.

Edited April 23, 2010 by elegantlion

[Mergath]

We don't give dd an allowance yet, obviously, but when she's five, I'm going to give her .50 per year per week, and when she hits ten, I'm going to up it to a dollar a year per week. She will have to help out around the house to receive it. I don't plan to make her save it if she doesn't want to, since it will be tied to chores and I wouldn't want someone telling me what to do with money I had earned.

[Peela]

My older got $20 a week from her dad from her 13th b'day. Before that, I gave them both a couple of $ a week each. It was a huge step up . We waited till ds was 13 before extending the same privelege to him. They both get it now, same amount.

 

No, we dont make them save any. Its their money- we dont control it. Both can save for something when they want to, though. Dd saved $1000 for a camp when she was 14. She asked everyone to give her money for b'day and Christmas, and saved every cent. Ds is a good saver too. At first, when my kids started gettng money, they spent it all on lollies. After a while, that wore off, and they started managing it more maturely.

[woolybear]

Thank you all for letting me know what your families do. It's really interesting to see all the different approaches.

 

Woolybear

[NanceXToo]

We did 1/2 child's age when we did it. So a 6yr old gets $3. A 10yo gets $5.

 

We did not make child save. I have two conflicting thoughts about this.

 

1) If you allow kid to learn themselves (often waste at first then learn their lesson) then they are ahead of most adults because they learned it when it was safe to learn it (not with their first credit card and/or job.

 

2) If you really believe there is a correct formula (ala Dave Ramsey, for example), then it makes sense to teach your kid that from the get go. It would actually be harmful, imo, to go against that.

 

If you DID decide to do a portion, you might give them a RANGE suggestion instead of a set in stone (again, unless your belief *is* set in stone).

 

Yeah everything she said. We do half the age, too. And while I might suggest saving x amount I think the only way they will really learn to manage their money is to, well, manage their money. Not be told how to manage their money. And yes for a while it may seem pretty wasteful to an adult. But they aren't adults. So better they get that out of their system now when they are kids. As they get older they'll start realizing hey if I want something more than just candy or gum, I need to save for a few weeks, and not just spend it all on something small this week, or whatever.