Do your children get an allowance?

[baking23]

Yes getting that first pay check was exciting. I never officially worked until senior year of high school but I had been babysitting/caretaking, since I 13 and would frequently help take care of neighbors pets on vacation, walk their dogs.

My brother was more of a spender than me when we was little but has gotten a lot better about it since he started college, and last year he got married. So he improved when he needed to.

[Homebody]

I started an allowance late with my girls. What happened is my oldest 12 and MD 10 at the time. I had purchased cute little bra and panty set for her friends for their birthdays at the after Christmas sales, like 5 sets. So on the way to her friend's party with the cute underwear set wrapped, she wanted to stop and get her something else. No I said. She was like why not.... anyway something snapped in me.

That week I put them on an allowance and they had to pay for all their gifts for friends, clothes, movies everything! MD promptly went out and got the paper route in our neighborhood that she kept for two years to supplement her allowance and OD started stuffing envelopes for me (I owned a medical billing service at the time). Both had real jobs at 16 for a friend of mine who owned a resale clothing store. They worked around their cheerleading activities, which was great.

YD got no allowance don't ask me why. She did have summer jobs working for her dad, but we have no excuse for spoiling her rotten.

Now married for 9 months, she is surprising everyone with how responsible she is being, after having no chores at home or money management training (and only 19).

[GoodBuyGirl]

I pay my kids by the job. I have tried a weekly allowence but it seemed that what they were expected to do got done less and less ,and they still had their hands out for money at the end of the week.
I decided in order for them to learn money has to be earned it was easier just to pay by the job.
I have a 13 year old that makes some really bad financial choices. She is embarassed by the fact I shop with coupons and am always looking for the best deal. I'm hoping as she matures and has more financial reponsibility some of what I've taught her has actually sunk in.

[Marcymox]

My kids don't get allowance. Although we've tried several methods through the years. We tried making up lists, calendars, chore charts, ect. none of them really worked. it got to the point where I'd ask them to take some dishes to the sink and they'd ask me how much I would pay them for it!!

My kids aren't the type that just covet certain items. They aren't like me, when I was a kid. I would pine and yearn for some toy, want it for weeks and WEEKS I'd beg my parents for the item, beg for money, ask for advances on my allowance ( I bet I still owe money for all the advances they gave me! ) - I can still remember thinking that NOT having a certain strawberry shortcake doll would be the end of my life. really.

anyway, I do want my kids to learn the value of a dollar, but since they are so unlike me as a child, I am sort of at a loss as to how to teach that. They are content to wait until a birthday or holiday for the video game or music CD they want. I pay for thier music lessons, scout dues and sports uniforms because I think that is my responsibility as a parent to fund enrichment activities. I pay for lunch money, and can't imagine asking a kid to pay for that out of an allowance- it's my job to feed my kids.

Maybe when they reach high school it will be a different story. As of now, we are teaching them that there are chores to do around the house that you do because you live there and you are part of the family. You clean your room, do dishes and wash your clothes because what's what everyone else does. I do give them the option to do a special chore or one of MY chores, to make extra money. One is Iron all of dad's dress shirts, 50 cents a shirt. other things that I would pay them for are chores such as washing my car, cleaning my bathroom- something they did not mess up, and is not a common familyl area.

so far they haven't taken me up on that, because they really don't need or want the money for anything. not that we buy them everything they ask for- we don't. They just never ask for anything.

all the money we save on allowance goes into a savings account. we can decide what to do with all that extra money later. it's about 25.00 a month per kid. they don't know its there.

[myself]

My daughter is 11. She currently gets $4/week, paid to her once a month as a deposit into her "Bank of Dad" account (an account that I maintain and pay interest on).

I think we started around age 7 with $2/week, later raised to $3, then $4. Initially, her "bank account" paid 5% interest/month. It's now down to 2%/month, still very generous. The point has been for her to understand the value of saving and compound interest.

There is a very good book called "First National Bank of Dad" by David Owen. I think it gives a great plan, including your own bank and how to set up a brokerage for your kids when they are a little older.

Steve,
Out of curiosity, had you pondered putting it into an ING Direct (current 4.5%), or Emigrant Direct (current 5.05%) account, on her behalf?
The only reason that I ask, is we've had money in both accounts, and presently we have our 4 children's savings account at ING.

[myself]

I'm not a parent, however I can remember what my parents did, which I think worked pretty well.

In elementary school we had chores, and allowance weekly, they were separate and we had to contribute to the family regardless of getting the allowance. although we were paid for doing extra chores. $3-5 in elementary. Jr. high I think it was $10, and high school $15. College was $20 but my parents didn't know I kept sneaking it back to them, since I was working all the time too.

They empathized saving but we could do whatever we wanted with it.

Wow, and you had college? (note that you mentioned empathized, not emphasized).

FWIW, I'm truly just kidding. I find myself using dictionary.com from time to time.

[crfga]

Allowance? Why not get your own business, there are lots of them out there.