If you ask a group of parents how they feel about allowances, you’re bound to get a wide variety of responses. Some parents swear by them and others think allowances are pointless. It might be interesting to note that you can use chore-based earnings to teach your children about the value of money.
Most families, whether they give an allowance or not, feel that it’s important for each member of the family to chip in where household chores are concerned. They want the children in the family to learn how to care for the home now rather than waiting until they’re out on their own. By giving each child chores to do, you’re training them for the future.
Why would you consider giving your children an allowance when doing chores is a requirement of being a member of the family? The biggest reason for giving allowances is to teach children how to handle money. When they have their own money, they’ll also learn how to make good financial decisions.
Your other option is to give them an allowance without having them associated with chores. It is also possible to give children money for extra things they do above and beyond chores they normally do. In either case, the choice is yours how to handle it; but the goal of teaching your children about money is the same.
Children will learn that money has to be earned through work by watching you and your partner. They know you go to work each week and that you get paid for the work you do. Talking about your work and answering questions about your pay will teach your children about what life will be like in their future. Explain that what you earn is based upon education and experience which may encourage them to work harder with their schoolwork.
When do you begin expecting your children to do chores and have an allowance associated with them? You may want to start when your children know how to count and begin to ask for things at the store. Of course, children learn at different rates so that could be as early as three for some children and older for others.
You may want to consider how much of an allowance you’ll give your children. Some parents give $0.25 for each birthday their child has had, i.e. a child who is eight would receive $2.00 each week. Other parents pay their children on a monthly basis. How you choose to set up an allowance system and how much you pay is something you’ll want to consider.
What do you want your child to learn about money? Do you want them merely to learn about money and how to spend it or do you want to teach them about saving? What about teaching them to be generous by giving money to charity? Think what you want your children to learn and how to best teach them those skills. Consider them having to save at least 30%, give 10% to charity, which leaves them 60% to spend or save for something they want.
The largest benefit of giving your children an allowance, whether you choose chore-based earnings to teach your children about the value of money or not, is that they’ll know how to handle money when they get older. The immediate benefit is that they won’t harass you about money if they have their own to spend.
