Do you give your kids an allowance ?

[Anonymous]

My daughter couldn’t believe that some of her friends don’t get an allowance? Why don’t some parents give their kids just $20 for helping out in the house? It’s pocket change and it makes them happy just do it.

[Anonymous]

We do allowance. It’s a great way to teach money management at an early age.

[Anonymous]

We don't give our kids an allowance. They get money for Christmas and their birthdays. They also do odd jobs in the neighborhood for cash. If they want more money, they can do more odd jobs.

[Anonymous]

I've never done allowance. To me, helping out around the house and yard is expected.

But until they've had paying jobs, I've given them money as needed for fun, entertainment, etc.

[Anonymous]

We don’t give an allowance either. It hasn’t really come up. But I agree that helping around the house is what you do because you’re part of a family, and any allowance should be separate from that.

[Anonymous]

$10 per week on Greenlight, plus extra for certain chores around the house. 11yo has buckets on Greenlight for spending, investing and charity, so it has been a great way to learn to manage money and has led to 11yo spending quite a bit of free time researching stock picks.

[Anonymous]

We give an allowance from kindergarten through high school.

It is not attached to chores, which they are required to do or they lose privileges.

We now have a college graduate, a college student, and a high school student, and they are all somewhere between thrifty and downright cheap, although they do give money to charity (not because we ever required it). They just don't want a lot, materially, and I think knowing that they could buy things if they planned enough made them good at cost-benefit calculations.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my 13 year old gets $60 a month.

[Anonymous]

Because I'm poor. I don't have an extra $20.

[Anonymous]

First, $20 is not "just pocket change" to most of the families in this country.

To answer your question, I give my kids allowance (weekly they get an amount equal to their age) but it's separate from helping around the house. I don't give extra for outings, entertainment - that's what allowance is for. They budget, I feel like it's financial management education.

[Anonymous]

My kids earn way more a month than I would give them in allowance. They do light dog sitting, get mail or packages for neighbors, help with leaves, etc. They're 11 and 13.

[Anonymous]

Yes, starting when they were 15 because that is when they started going to things with us (i.e. movies, ice cream after a football game, etc).

They earn $25 a week but only if they finish and mark off everything on their chore list for the week. Frankly it's a PIA until the chore list is set and easy to keep a weekly rhythm.

[Anonymous]

My kids get a weekly allowance that aligns with their age (12 year old gets $12).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids earn way more a month than I would give them in allowance. They do light dog sitting, get mail or packages for neighbors, help with leaves, etc. They're 11 and 13.

You must have rich neighbors

[Anonymous]

No set weekly allowance but we do pay if we need random things done. Mowing grass, helping with yardwork, etc.

We did allowance with our older 2 and we always ended up forgetting about it and forgetting to track it. With the youngest (13) outside of what he earns for odd jobs for us we just give him money if he wants to do something.