Allowances help teach kids savings savvy

Personally, I feel that a child should be required to save a certain percentage of their allowance. Adults should, why not teach them early. Then by the time they have a job it's automatic to put a little away.

Once the child is at an appropriate age, I see no reason why they shouldn't be asked to pay for some of their own expenses. Maybe a portion of their cell phone bill. Teach them what bills are all about.

My father, on the other hand, insisted that I save every penny, to the point where I thought saving money meant you'd never see it again. Didn't motivate me to make money or save because I couldn't see the point. When I got my first job at 13 I went crazy and spent it all. Took a long time to balance that out again.

Make them save some, then let them blow a little. I think that way they'll learn to save and spend wisely.

I received an allowance as a child, but it wasn't very much, and it was only to spend on the extras - if I wanted candy, I had to buy it myself. When I got my first job (babysitting), I made ALOT of money at it, and I did learn how to save it for the bigger things I wanted, but it was still spent on extras - some of them just bigger than others.

Now I have a child, and I am taking things a step further. I found a great system (the money savvy pig) that will help me teach him about spending, saving for a bigger item, donating, and investing. Right now he gets $10 a week, which is split up among these four categories.

I will also be teaching him that there are certain chores he has to do because he lives in the house - make his bed, put his dishes away, clean up his toys - those are things he has to do not matter what. However, as in the real world, where you can do extra work to make extra money, I will be teaching him that as well - if he wants more money, he can mow the lawn, rake the leaves, wash the car, shovel the snow, etc.....

I think allowances are great!

We provide the kids allowance based on age (50 cents X age +50 cents). We pay them twice a month on our payday. After age 10, they can top up their allowance by making supper at $5 per supper. They also get extra for good grades ($1 to $3) which rewards them for great performance, like a bonus you would get at a job. So, if the kids are saving for something, they can get more good grades or make more suppers to top up their allowance. I wish I instilled savings habits for long-term goals, but time seems to escape me. Kudos to those that do! The kids use their allowance for anything I can not afford or consider non-essential: treats, movies, dances, computer games, designer clothes, toys, ipods, computer accessories. When I was growing up I received 25 cents X age and extra for babysitting, weeding the garden and mowing the lawn. We gave 10% to charity, but savings was only enforced once we had a job outside the home.

My children don't receive an allowance. They know what their chores are and they do it without issue and get pretty good grades.

My husband and I are very open about our money and were it goes (too a point) but the kids know the value of a dollar and they respect it. Our oldest has a part time job and he pays for most of the extras that he wants and is well aware of how hard you have to work and saving is more important than spending. This is now passing on to his younger brother and he is learning that just because he has the money does not mean he has to spend it.

We always tell them not to make the same mistakes we have done and save for the day they want something. We never have a problem giving them a helping hand if they are short of funds because we know they saved. They do have things given to them but why not, they worked for them and showed us that they deserve the recoginition for helping by doing their chores or whatever other job they might do. We don't always give, that is were parenting comes in.

Children should automatically want to help around the house and like we tell our kids, this house is not cheap and keeping it looking nice is not cheap either and their home is a place for them to enjoy and respect.

I don't believe allowances teach anything, money should not be the push behind children doing something for their parents, their home. It gives the wrong message in my opinion.

I give my children a weekly allowance based on their ages ($1 per year). My children have two jars to put their allowance in. One for Spending and one for Charity. I encourage them to put 10% into Charity. The rest can go to Spending and is used to buy treats and toys. They can earn extra money by doing extra chores and they recieve a "bonus" for good grades. My son is also a very reluctant reader so I give him $1 for every "chapter" book he reads. My daughter is not an independant reader yet so she gets $1 for every 20 books she has read with her. We tried to have them put aside money for "Savings" but my 8 year old thinks that since he is "saving" his spending money to buy bigger ticket items (video games, lego) he should be able to use any "Savings" to do the same. I like the idea of having them put aside money for "Investing" rather than "Savings" and I think that is something we will start doing.

I personally never believed in giving my children an allowance; I bought them everything they needed and even some extras. I am not paid to clean and cook and do laundry and neither should they as they were taught that this is everyone's home. Helping around the house is a responsibility we all share. They got gifts if they did well on their report card and were not short on birthday, Christmas and Easter gifts; they were never suffering. Children should not be raised expecting to be paid if they did something around their home!!!!

The first comment here about making teens pay a portion of their cell phone bill really disgusts me. When did it become a requirement that every teenager needs their own cell phone? Cell phones are a luxury, except maybe for business use. If teenagers have one (which I don't believe they should) then it should be 100% their own responsibility to pay the ENTIRE bill.

That said, allowances are great. I was given an allowance growing up, which I only got after all my chores were done and if I was well behaved, and from that I had to cover any extras I wanted and my savings. I could ask for extra chores to make extra money. I saved a lot of it for big-ticket items (by kid standards), and it taught me to manage my money so now while my friends are using credit to buy what they can't afford I'm doing without for finding ways to make extra money to pay for things.

I received an a Allowance when I was a kid I would get $10 for the week but being that I grew up on a farm I had to actually work for that money with daily chores. When I became a teenager (around 14-15) I received an increase to $20 a week and that was just perfect I thought also my father sold crops to locals in the fall after harvest and I would get a small cut of that since I help work on it being it was separate form chores. When i started out on my own basically the only money advise my parts gave me was "Make sure all your bills and expenses are paid first and what ever is left over is yours" and that is what I do I pay my bills and buy food and what ever is left over is my disposable income and that works perfectly for me I don't live outside my means and have no debt, if I want something I save for it simple as that.

I never ever got an allowance as a kid and it really showed me the value of a dollar when I did get some cash for a birthday or christmas. I always save my money and still do. I graduated in june 2008 with $0 to my name and by the end of 2009 I had made close to $100,000 with over $30,000 cash in my bank account. Im happy my mother never bought me whatever I wanted as a kid and any parent that gives their kids an allowance is an idiot and is showing their kids nothing when it comes to the value of money.

I never receieved or gave my childern an alowance. First of all I could not afford it! There was no guarnateed weekly/monmthly money but I do see how IF used properly it could be a good tool. On the other hand it does create and expectation of dollars for nothing if there is no responsibility attached to receving this money.

I never got an allowance as a kid. I had to do chores if I wanted to eat.
Occassionally I would so major work around the house to earn $10 but I had to back to do it. At an early age I'd go to neighbors and offer to clean their homes --anything.
I moved out from home when I turned 18yrs.

I have observed families and various examples of allowances ...and I believe parents are creating their own nightmares. Children learning to be ungreatful for anything unless paid to say thank you.

Small allowances are ok...BUT minimal...I like the idea of multiple piggybanks and teaching kids to save and spend wisely. Giving various financial rewards for things like better grades is dangerous and harmful. If a child is unable to get an A then what? of if a child gets an A by cheating (and parents don't know it), then what?

Lots to think about.

Nothing wrong with allowances as long as it is given for work done. It's the same as working a job for money. As for how it's spent is up to the child. Let them learn that if they blow all their cash they can't buy the bigger items they want. People are a little "silly" on here trashing allowance and calling parents "idiots" for giving it out.

I never got an allowance as a kid. I learned that is was my responsibility to keep my room clean and to help with other things. Being paid for things that should be done is not teaching anything, its just a black mail tool for parents...like keep your room clean and take out the garbage or cut the grass or no allowance. You should be teaching them that they can do things for others and not have to be paid for it.