Kids and Money
This Thursday, 10am MST, we will be talking about Kids and Money .
If I know two things about this topic, it’s that it can get pretty opinionated, and that there is no right answer.
- Should children get an allowance? How much is reasonable?
- What do you say when their friends get money and they don’t (or not as much)?
- Should they be allowed to spend it on whatever they want?
- Are they required to save some or give any to charity?
- Do you match money that they save?
- And the biggie….do you tie money to chores or pay for extra chores?
We want to know what you think. A lot of our show will be about sharing your comments and ideas. Please post them here, email us, or call into the radio show.
Lisa and Amy
April:
* Should children get an allowance?
I don’t think “should” is the right word when it comes to allowance. That’s a decision that varies from family to family, and over time even within the same family. What’s important is that children learn about money, how to manage it, how to earn it, how to invest it, and how to use it to create positive change. There are many ways to learn these things, and plenty of time for children to learn it. There are some great books out there on this topic, and while reading them won’t clear the muddy waters, they might spark some ideas and discussion.
How much is reasonable?
It depends on the financial situation of the family, age of the child, what expenses the child is expected to cover for themselves with their allowance, etc..
* What do you say when their friends get money and they don’t (or not as much)?
“Every family has to so what works best for them.” Followed by, “No, you’re not getting that much!” or “There’s plenty of weeds if you want to do some work and earn some money.” LOL.
* Should they be allowed to spend it on whatever they want?
That should be discussed and worked out with the parents. A preteen given a small allowance might have more flexibility to spend than a teen, who might be expected to use their allowance to purchase clothing, pay for clubs and activities, etc…
* Are they required to save some or give any to charity?
This would vary with the family. I encourage my kids to give to charity, but don’t require it. We give from the family funds and they get to help choose the charities. One way we do this is to annually roll the coins in the change jars together and then pick a charity or two to hand deliver the money to. This way they have a very tangible feel for what we are doing. This seems to really resonate with the younger kids – it can be hard for them to hand over all those pennies!
* Do you match money that they save?
Not usually, tho’ if they are saving for something big, we might find work that they can do to earn extra. (We do save for their future education, and they know that.)
* And the biggie….do you tie money to chores or pay for extra chores?
There are “family jobs” that we all do just because we are all sharing this household. If there is work that I pay, or would gladly pay, another person to do – deep cleaning, floors, weed pulling, etc., I offer them a flat fee for each job. This isn’t set in stone, because if the job goes undone long enough it becomes a family job and we all have to do it together w/o pay. Their very small allowance isn’t tied to anything at all. (except me remembering, which is an issue
)
Great topic ladies, I’m looking forward to listening….even tho’ it’ll probably be from the podcast and not live.
17 July 2008, 3:49 amPam:
Aside from sex and death is there any more difficult topic to discuss with our kids than money? It’s also a very personal topic with different undertones for each family. We keep allowances small, and encourage the kids to find outside sources for earning money, which helps to support expensive hobbies like horse ownership. When we pay an allowance, we don’t tie it to chores, but expect chores as part of being a household member. Our kids understand that allowances are spending money and may fluctuate based on our budget at the time. We don’t put many limits on how they spend allowance, but at our house we have to have the rule that adding live pets must be cleared with parents first!
As for charity contributions, my kids sometimes choose to contribute to charities, but I don’t require it. I do let them know that I’m proud of them when they choose to share with others, or with causes that aer important to them.
17 July 2008, 2:45 pmAmy:
I have to say first, we are very bad money managers. I think my 10 year old is the best of all of us. We give them a weekly allowance, automatically deducted from our checking account so that we don’t forget. It’s a small one, a few dollars, but its strictly for fun stuff for them and stuff they want that we say no to for money reasons. Like lattes and gameboy games. Sometimes when they are wiling to pay me back for something, I don’t charge them.
I don’t tie allowance to chores or take away money for ‘punishment’ because I feel that lets them ‘buy’ their way out of work that is needed to keep the house running and kind of lets them pick how ‘bad’ they want to be! I have seen them offer to pay each other to do things the first one doesn’t want to do.
Now chores is a whole ‘nuther topic!
17 July 2008, 3:26 pm