I received a question from a reader in a comment that seemed worthy of its own blog post.
What a great blog Darcy! My son is just getting an interest in money and saving. When did you start a weekly allowance w/ the kids and how much do the kids earn? We are trying to figure out when and how much to start our son out at, and what parameters to tie it to....there are only so many chores a 4 year old can do! :)
Obviously you have to do what works in your family, but here's what we do with our kids: We started the allowance when our kids turned 4 years old, and they get $1 per week for each year old they are. So my 8-year old gets $8 per week. We don't explicitly tie the allowance to chores, although they do have chores and we add more each year. So I guess it's more like a salary for them, they get it as long as there aren't serious deficits in getting their chores done.
I don't like to tie allowance directly to chores because I don't want to send the message that the kids will get paid for doing things that are a part of their job in the family (and no one pays me when I do the dinner dishes or the laundry!) But we have docked their allowance in the past if the kids didn't do their chores in a particular week.
Our kids are expected to keep their rooms picked up, including making the bed every day. They have to get their clothes into the hamper and their dinner dishes into the sink every evening. The 8-year old also has to sweep under the table after dinner and clean the toilets once per week.
I think 4 years old is a great time to start allowance for the exact reason listed above, they start to get interested. In my humble opinion, one of the best things we can teach our kids about money is that you have to earn and save money before you can buy the things that you want.
Good luck implementing the allowance, let me know how it goes!
