Kid's and money
By Shannon
@fawkes62 (1276)
United States
June 24, 2016 8:29am CST
We've been giving our kids an allowance tied to their chores for quite a while now but we were having problems with the system we had. There were many days where our kids would just skip their chores. We would take the skipped chores out of their allowance, but they still didn't really care. We decided that maybe the amount, fairly small for each of them, just wasn't motivating enough. We couldn't afford to just increase their allowance without changing something else, so after looking online, I found some ideas. Now they make half their age each week, which is a huge increase for them, but there is more they have to spend it on.
Before their money went to just two things, savings and spending. They had such a small amount that it took a long time to save up to anything. Now they have four things to divide their allowance into. They still set some aside for savings and some for spending but they are also now saving for Christmas spending (previous years they had to take out of savings to buy gifts for each other - something they chose to do) and they are now responsible for buying their own clothes. The youngest doesn't earn quite enough for her clothes so we supplement that amount, but the other two do earn enough to cover the clothes.
The hardest part of this new system is that we also decided that they can spend their spending money on what ever they want, assuming we allow the item in the house and they are old enough to have it. In theory it works great, in practice it's really difficult. I try to let them spend it how ever they want, but I also try to help them make good decisions too. My youngest wants an expensive sweatshirt that she isn't going to be able to use just her clothing money on (at least if she wants enough to buy pants this fall) so she's going to have to use some of her spending money on it. At the store yesterday (not the one that has the sweatshirt) she wanted to spend all of her birthday money on toys (totally understandable as she's only 8) but she also wants that sweatshirt. It took a lot of talking on my part to help her remember that she needs to save for that sweatshirt too. She ended up spending a lot of her money, but she did save some for the sweatshirt. I know I should have just stepped back and let her spend the money, that's what we said we were going to do, but it's hard. I know they need to make their money mistakes now so they don't make them when they are adults, but it's really hard to do.
How do you teach your kids about money?
8 people like this
10 responses
@marguicha (224946)
• Chile
24 Jun 16
Money is a difficult subject and I learned with my children that I wasn´t the only responsible for what they learned, but that they had their own personalities too.
My youngest daughter, now 50, earns very well. But she does not take along with her her credit card as she knows that she still has trouble handling money.
1 person likes this
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jul 16
We used to use our credit cards for most of our spending and have struggled to pay them off. It took a while for us to learn the lesson and stop using them. It was a long and expensive lesson that I hope my kids avoid. Hopefully by teaching them about money now they won't make the mistakes as adults.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (224946)
• Chile
1 Jul 16
@fawkes62 While credit cards can help a lot in some ways, they can be very dangerous in others.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
25 Jun 16
I can't remember how we did it when they were younger. Our kids got money for working for neighbors, most of it went into clothes. Once they got close to college we made them put money in the bank so it would be there when they left. Only one of the kids misused money. He took every loan he could and blew it away living away from us. At the end of his college years he owed the banks Thousands. Now at the age of 34 he is realizing what an idiot he was and he now has set up a repayment plan, When he gets into it for a while we will help him pay it off but we never offered until he took the first step...
1 person likes this
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jul 16
I'm hoping to teach my kids enough about money that they avoid the mistakes we made when we were younger. We're still paying for some of those mistakes (though we have managed to pay off a few of them) and the college loans will be with me for years.
1 person likes this
@DianneN (247183)
• United States
24 Jun 16
You have some good ideas there. My kids are grown and earn their own money now, lots more than us. Lol! When they were young, we put a chart up with a list of jobs on it and how much each one was worth. If they wanted money, they chose the more difficult and higher paying jobs. They spent their money on comic books, baseball cards, candy, and small toys. We always bought their clothes and large gifts. All money gifts went into their savings accounts and given to them when they entered college.
1 person likes this
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jul 16
Our kids have their regular chores that they have to do to get their allowance and then they have "bonus chores" that they can do for a little extra or so that they can miss a regular chore without losing allowance. Most cash gifts we let them decide what to do with, but any money received by check goes into their savings account. They have one set of grandparents that always give money gifts as cash and one that always gives money gifts as checks, so about half goes into savings and half they can spend.
1 person likes this
@paigea (36315)
• Canada
24 Jun 16
Well, I think you did fine. She is only 8. Once she gets to the point where she saved for the sweatshirt; then you can reinforce the points you were making at the store and then you can start to step back, let her decide more and more as time goes on.
I gave my kids a clothing allowance starting at age 12. It was interesting to see how one of my girls saved and bought expensive clothes and had a very sparse closet. My other girl bought cheaper clothes and had a stuffed closet, (like me).
My dad had us keep a ledger. He didn't actually give us the cash on allowance day, we just entered it in our ledger. Then we had to go to him to "withdraw" it when we wanted to buy something. He used that time to have us think about if we really wanted that item or if there was something else we wanted more.
1 person likes this
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jul 16
I thought about waiting until my youngest was older to do the clothing part, but she wants to be just like her older siblings and teaching them how to handle money is good to start at any age. Her allowance is small enough though that we do have to give her extra for clothes only, but that also means we have more say on what she buys for clothes. I've also told them I will buy the underwear and socks, unless they want some that are more expensive than I would normally buy.
@BettyB (4117)
• Summerville, South Carolina
26 Jun 16
Teaching kids about money is not easy. We struggled with it especially when they saw all their friends getting all sorts of things. We couldn't afford to keep up with 'The Jone's'. They fussed at the time but not they appreciate the lessons learned. Earning their own gave them a sense of pride and responsibility. It paid off in the end.
1 person likes this
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
24 Jun 16
I have had a really hard time with the kids and this. They only do what they need to when they want something and I won't buy til they do some work (and depending on cost). Plus I have an Aunt who pays them too darn well and I can't compete with what she can give them for spending money. So either they do what needs to get done or they get nothing and can go with out then.
1 person likes this
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jul 16
Our kids allowance is tied to their chores too. I've told them how much they can earn by doing all their chores each week plus we have "bonus chores" which are done once a week. Those have an amount tied to them too which they can either use as extra money at the end of the week or they can miss a regular chore and substitute in the bonus chore to not lose any money. If they miss more chores than they have bonus chores, then they get less money at allowance time. That loss of money comes from their spending money first. I have one kid that almost always earns her bonus money and one that usually loses at least some allowance each week. The third goes back and forth.
@marlina (154129)
• Canada
24 Jun 16
When our 2 sons were young and wanted to get some "brand clothes like Nike) we made them pay the difference with the price we were willing to pay. (From their money gifts). Lots of time, they opted for the no name brand, they didn't want to pay the high prices of Nike etc.
1 person likes this
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jul 16
We don't normally buy name brand clothes either. When deciding on how much allowance to give the kids I looked at how much clothes cost at the store I normally shop at and then added up how much everything they should need to buy over one year. I made sure their allowance would cover that amount. It worked for the older two but they youngest doesn't get enough so we help with the cost of the clothes. If they want anything more expensive, like name brand clothes, they have to use their spending money. So far no one has chosen the more expensive stuff.
@fawkes62 (1276)
• United States
1 Jul 16
I hope they grow up to be good with money. Right now the oldest is the only one that seems to be pretty good with her money, but that might be because there isn't much she really wants right now. She's not really into clothes like some teenage girls (or makeup) and she doesn't have much else that she's really into spending on. The other two, especially the youngest, are still into toys so there's lots they want to buy.
1 person likes this
