- Age 4
- DS started asking for money to buy things, so we instated a very small weekly allowance ($1).
- He saves half, spends 1/4, donates 1/4.
- The savings portion is indefinite. When he's a teen, I'd be willing to discuss ways to use it. Car insurance, post-HS travel, college textbooks. Something along those lines. I'd also love to see him invest some of the money.
- The spending portion can be on anything house rules allow. So no sweets or weapons or anything age-inappropriate.
- Around 7-8 we'll probably up the amount to something with actual purchasing power and reduce the donation portion to 10-15%, something more sustainable over a lifetime.
- Monetary gifts so far have been put in savings. As he becomes more aware of their existence, we'll probably put them in spending.

We start allowances at age 5. My kids have three Mason jars. One for spend, one for save, one for give. They are 6 and 8 and each gets $6 a week, on Saturdays. Three dollars goes into the spend jar, two dollars in the save, and one dollar in the give. They can use their spend money however they want, but they buy all their own toys and junk from the school store with their own money. We only buy toys at Christmas and birthdays. The save jar is not designated for a specific purpose at this point, it is just to instill in them the concept of saving and deferring wants over needs. The can use the give money any way they like, as long as it is to do something for someone other than themselves. Last Christmas, they used it for Toys for Tots.

My kids are older elementary--can't remember when we started, but probably once both were in elementary school. We split allowance three ways: 1 part is savings, 1 part is charity giving, 2 parts spending. We give low amounts but the kids still have more than they need, and one of my kids often chooses to put more of the spending money into savings. They decide how to allocate gift money.

Savings: Intended to be longer term, but no goal at this point. I remember my siblings and I saved up and bought a keyboard when we were in middle/high school--it wasn't something my parents were going to buy us, but they had no problem with us having one. I see my kids' savings the same way. I'm happy to have them save up for something that is important to them. We've said that they don't need to save for college, in part because that's so a huge goal and would be overwhelming for younger kids. If necessary, I'd only introduce the need for college savings in high school, when they could actually earn bigger money towards it.

As the kids' savings have grown, we've helped them to invest a small amount in a pretty safe investment so that they can get a taste of how the stock market works.

My 4 year old actually has a piggy bank with 4 chambers. Save,mspend, charity, invest. She got it when she was 2. The money that goes in there is spare change she finds or my dad gives her. All money sent to her goes directly into her savings account and she knows that is for her spending money in college. Out of the piggy bank, we roll the coins when it is full and she can spend the roughly $10 in that section, the charity goes to church for now until she is old enough to pick a charity that she wants to support, and the other 2 sections just go into the bank at this point as I'm not really ready to introduce the concept of the stock market. So far she hasn't chosen to spend the spend section, so that also goes into the bank, but she knows she can.

We don't do an allowance yet, but will in the fall when she starts school.

No one replied to my previous post, I will try to be more articulate and hopefully get some replies....

At what age did you start this? How did you introduce it? What is the child saving for? Something they want, like an expensive toy or device? or college?
How do you determine the division of money. Is allowance split three way? Equally? Is a gift from grandma put in the spend of save, or do you still share a gift?

I'm sure different families do different things, just trying to get some ideas, trying to decide if this is the kind of approach we want. Right now child had one piggy bank, all money is stuff she collects off ground, or around the house, we let her spend a couple dollars occasionally. She's 4 if that helps.