Pocket money: at what age and how much?

In My Humble Opinion
21

When I was six, I got a dollar a week allowance that I could spend on anything I wanted, junky or otherwise, and I took out the garbage every day to get it.

Soon, however, I learned that if I saved the dollar I could get better stuff. My parents, I’m assuming, taught me that. So when I was eight I’d saved up enough to pay for my own Christmas shopping, and I was so proud of myself (I went shopping at the Dollar Store, but still).

Six isn’t too early, I think, to learn how to spend wisely and save wisely, and the value of a dollar - but he should have to do something in return. I took out the garbage. Maybe he could help clean up after dinner, or something? Or even just keeping his room clean. Make him earn it, but let him learn that if he has one dollar, and saves it, next week he’ll have TWO dollars. And so forth. Kids are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.

In an aside, a friend of mine has a five year old that gets a weekly allowance of a dollar fifty. She’s saved every cent of it since she started getting it and now has almost enough to buy a video game for her mother’s Playstation for Christmas for her. Isn’t that adorable?

~Tasha

22

I didn’t get an allowance as a kid. Around 6th grade, I realized that I could keep my lunch money instead of eating, so that’s what I did. In high school, I would buy a snack cake for lunch (fifty cents) and save the rest of the money to buy cigarettes. However, I turned out to be a fiscally responsible adult, and on the plus side, I have no urge whatsoever to eat another snack cake for the rest of my life.

I can’t bring myself to give the kids an allowance for doing their chores, because I feel that sharing the work is just something family members should do anyway. Sometimes, if they want money they ask for extra work and I find them something to do. However, I have recently started paying them ten dollars for every A they get on their report cards. This experiment is still too new to decide if it’s been a good idea or not.