Allowances: Show Them the Money
By: Keith
At some point in my youth my parents thought it would be a good idea to start giving me an allowance. However, not to be too straightforward about it or anything, they threw in a twist. The deal was this: I could have 5 dollars per week in cash or I could abstain from any dollar amount up to 5 dollars, and they would match that withholding and throw it in a bank account to mature in the off chance I’d make it to college some day. My twin sister of course got the same deal. By the time I made it to college (based almost entirely on my athletic ability) I had a whopping $1600, and my sister had at least 4 times that much. But, damn, those Thin Mints from the snack shack in 1984 were totally worth it. And, this brings me to my point. I’ve decided it’s time to start giving my boys an allowance. The problem is that the last time I’ve heard mention of allowances the standard rate was about 5 dollars a week. Since they’re young, and I didn’t care to ask around, I decided to just wing it and make it all up as I go along.
The Deal: Tell Me What You Think
I decided that my parents were on to something. My boys, however, are not yet sophisticated enough to understand bank accounts and savings. Thus, I’m starting simple. They can have 50 cents a day in cash or $1 per day to be paid out at the end of the week. I don’t like giving them something for nothing so they are also required to have their room cleaned before they go to bed every night; that will ensure they get their 50 cents first thing in the morning at breakfast (I have a really huge stash of quarters). You may ask, “Which option did you expect the kids to take?” To which I answer “Well, I had high hopes, but they proved to be truly my kids.” Yes, they both picked the 50 cent daily option rather than the bulk Sunday payout of 7 dollars. This is after I explained it in detail with numbers and a pencil.
I suspect my boys are not terribly atypical in their impatience. They want their money now rather than wait a while to get more. The question is, is this a typical boy trait or can it be more attributed to age? Will they see the light when they resolve to buy something more expensive or will age dictate when that switch occurs? Perhaps it’s a matter of incentives? Either way, it’s been an interesting childhood development experiment. Have you tried something similar with your kids?
Smart: By Shel Silverstein
My dad gave me one dollar bill
‘Cause I’m his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
‘Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes — I guess he don’t know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just ’cause he can’t see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head–
Too proud of me to speak!
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Dear Keith,
First off I’d like to say that I’ve recently started reading your articles, and really enjoy them primarily I guess because they’re all easy to relate to for me, or at least most of them.
I too received an allowance when I was a kid, but I only got my 10 dollars if I did all my chores everyday for that week in a timely fashion in my parents eyes. Not to mention everything had to be up to par, as far as the work that I was getting paid for haha.
With my sons I did the same thing with the eldest of the 3. However, having two other sons right behind him, I had to find a way to spread the chores out or come up with more (great for me by the way!).
What I ended up doing was coming up with a list of chores seperated into categories and let each of the boys pick which chores they wanted to do. Now the catagories were primarily to seperate the little stuff from the big stuff, in which they each had to choose a certain ammount from each category. Anyways long story short, i think It taught them all different aspects of alot of different things, business for one, time management, and responsibilities if not most important. Anyways just wanted to add my comment here for ya bud!
Have a wonderfull week, can’t wait to read the next article! If you have a second take a look at how I became a stay at home dad and give me your feedback, It would be greatly appreciated and highly valued , thanks again Keith, Hey guys I’m new to the forum, name’s Sarah
Anyways I think you all might like to take a look at something I’ve been doing alot of research on and really have found this to be unparalleled to anything else out there, watch a couple of the videos and let me know what you think. click here if you have the time.
Sincerely,
Mike Simons
We start giving our kids an allowance at the age of 5. At that time they get 25 cents per year of age per week. So my 5 year old gets $1.25/week. At the age of ten it goes up to 50 cents per year of age per week. At 13 years old it goes up to 75 cents and at 16 to $1. 10% (or what’s close to that in the change they get)must go into savings every week at every age level
I don’t tie my kids allowance to their chores, they will do the chores regardless. It works for us 
We give “allowance” starting at birth. $20 a month straight into their bank account. Around 5 years old they start being able to split it up and have a little to give (if they want, and they all choose to..for charity, gifts..etc) and a portion they can spend. But at least 1/2 goes into savings. They have little registers to keep up with it, they love going to the bank, and seeing their money “pile up”. All the kids get the same amount regardless of age. And they get it not based on chores. But don’t get me wrong they do have chores but they are expected to help whether they get paid or not. We also have the option to dock their allowance for certain things like my oldest who kept “forgetting” to wear her glasses, I threatened to dock her $1 per day I caught her without them. She only lost $3. And now I dont have to nag her about the glasses.
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Hey Keith,
I really like the idea you (and your parents) have about giving the kid options. It seems like a really good way to get them to think short and long term about what money can do.
I heard somewhere that an allowance shouldn’t be tied directly to chores, or the child might choose not to help around the house because they didn’t need the money. Or if the allowance is taken away as a punishment, the child might argue that they don’t need to help around the house in return. I have no idea how you’d be able to successfully convince a kid that chores are just something you do for fun and an allowance is just a separate reward of sorts each week, but I do think it is interesting how an allowance is essentially designed to teach kids that hard work equates to a monetary reward.
Does it make a difference to your children if you pay them with a $5 bill versus in quarters or single dollar bills? The poem you included at the end made me think of this, since children don’t necessarily understand the value of a dollar, but a sack of nickels sure does seem like a lot.
Fiscal responsibility is one of the best things a parent can teach their children. Nice job of getting this into your children’s heads early on.
Dan: I think you might be right about it being a bad idea tying chores to allowances. I think that’s something I’ll change. You almost might be onto something with the dollar bills vs coins thing. I’ve noticed in these past few days that the boys like the jingle of coins more than paper money. It’s seems less important the value and more important to them the heft of metal!
Kids are funny little buggers.