How do you handle chores and "allowance"

[Alice]

For those who require your kids to designate a set part of their allowance to savings and/or charity:  do you do the same with your money?

 

I am all in with teaching kids the value of these things, but I think donations should be 100% voluntary.  As for savings, I don't know.  I set up a sub-account in my savings for each of my kids dating back to their birth, and I put $1/day into that.  At some point I want that to be a rainy day fund for them, but I haven't decided exactly how it's going to work.  Other than that, I would rather let them decide on a project they want to save for and how much to save and watch it grow.  In the end, either they have what they need or not.  As they get older and have more earning power, I would expect them to save for more of their own needs, e.g., a car.

 

 

We require our kids to tithe 10% to church. We also do that with our own salaries and they know that. None of them have protested or complained. If they felt really strongly that they didn't want to do that we would talk about why and see.

 

Giving above that is up to them. One of our kids is very generous with his money. Whenever we do something as a family,  he typically wants to give on his own. For example, we do a thing at Christmas where we send gifts (like Heifer International, but with a different organization). Typically I have each child pick one gift and that's our family donation. He always wants to also add another gift from his own money. I don't require the other two do that as well (although I would love it if they did and I hope they do one day.) 

 

We don't require savings, but all of ours are pretty much natural savers to varying degrees. We encourage savings by talking about it. My youngest is probably the one who is most likely to just go and spend. If she wants to buy something I will often make her wait a short amount of time. I don't say no, I just tell her she has to wait a week or two. At her age that is torture but it often also shows her that after the waiting period she doesn't want the thing she thought she did. 

[SereneHome]

Here is how it is for now.

 

They have chores.  They have no allowance.  I don't know if it's a cultural thing or my own thing - I can not get into the idea of allowance.  To me it's just getting snowflake money for your sheer existence. 

 

I also don't believe it teaches a kid how to handle money bc again, it's snowflake money that is consistency being put into their hands. 

 

My oldest has been "making" money by doing all kinds of things - I am willing to pay for his concerts in our living room and his art gallery in our hallway.  I am willing to pay for the tournaments he sets up in our back yard and many other things that he comes up with to "make" money.  He puts lots of creativity and effort into it and I am all for it.  He probably got a lot more money of me this way than he would have if he actually had allowance.

 

Same with DS2.  DS3 is  not interested in money at all for now. 

 

I also talk to them non-stop about all things finance.  Savings vs investing, savings vs leverage, credit cards and interest rates, interest paid vs interest received, and taxes, etc etc etc.  It was my bread and butter for many years and I love talking about that stuff. 

 

I wish I had a good handle on the whole chores situation as I do on finance :(