Graham Hill Elementary

1) Raising Money Smart Kids by Janet Bodner has been a good resource
for us. Our 7 and 8 year old get $3 each week. 10% is to be given
away (church or other non-profit). The rest they choose how to
spend. It is not linked to chores or behavior — rather an
opportunity for them to make decisions about how to manage money.

2) We started about 5 ish and gave about $1.50 a week. By 10 we were
giving $3.00 a week. At 12 we give $3.00 (one to save, one for
charity, and one for him—now forced saving and charity) and 2-3 more
dollars depending on if he has been sassy, done his morning and
evening routines well, gotten to bed on time and to school without
being late and kept his room cleanish. I sometimes note a plus, check
or minus on the calendar for the morning and evening and we look it
over together when Sunday comes and it is time for allowance.

I know these are low rates. It is intentional. I have seen my son
become amazingly good with money in the last 7 years and prior to
that he just let it lie around and played with it. On trips we give
him $1.00 /day sometimes a bit of a round up and we pay for ice
creams, gum, etc. He buys his "things". He is reflective and makes
good purchases, of course with some regrets (the learning process).
We discourage taking things back.

He has demonstrated no great tendency to go out and buy candy etc.
with his money. We occasionally will split something expensive with
him. He has been encouraged to work (he got paid a penny a pinecone
that he picked up in our yard and even advertised and did it for
someone else when he was 8—otherwise his chores are part of his
responsibility). He currently is a mother's helper one day a week and
uses that money plus allowance for things he wants.

He makes money in other ways (he has several"stores" and kids love
his products) but this is all for the official policy.

I will be interested in the compile. It is a hassle to track.teaching
kids about money but I think well worth it. I love the vacation
policy as it has stopped his wanting everything he sees —he saves
his money until he really wants something on a trip and takes the
purchase seriously and loves what he buys. To me, that is success.

3) We have given an allowance to our 6 and 9 year old sons for about
9 months. It's a little loose in that we often forget. We give them
each $2.00 a week, payday is on Saturday. I do not attach any
chore/expectation to the money. We felt it was important to keep them
separate so we were not using the money as motivation to do chores.
It is their responsibility as members of the family to help out. I
know some families who base the amount on age. I think it's unfair to
pay siblings different amounts. Both of my kids have bank accounts.
Ideally we'd go to the bank and deposit some of the money that sits
in their piggy banks. They are unwilling to part with it, so there it
sits, until they spot a new Lego product the can't live without.

4) We have just started this. Our six year old has to complete a set
of chores to get her $6 allowance. She has only suceeded in this two
times since we set it up six months ago – both times when she was
highly motivated by a toy she wanted to buy. So I'd say that I don't
feel like our system is working that well. I've read $1 per year of
age/week and I've heard arguments on both sides of tying to chores or
not. Also, some people use allowance to teach 1/3 for spending, 1/3
for saving, 1/3 for charity. I think this is a good idea and maybe
we'll try instituting it. I'd love to hear what other people are
doing.

5) We just started giving our 8 yr old an allowance of $1 per week,
which he gets in quarters. He has 2 banks, 1 for spending and one
for saving. The deal is he has to put one quarter from every week
into the savings. We make no stipulations as to what he can spend
the rest on. He has done chores for a couple years now so the two
are pretty unrelated.
Love to hear what others are doing!

6) We give our child (a 7 yr old girl) 25 cent for each chore she
does like feeding the dog, setting the table, loading the dishwasher
etc… This does not include things that she is expected just to do
like cleaning her room, picking up her toys, practicing piano… Then
we tally them up at the end of the week and that is what she gets for
allowance. We started about 6 months ago. She used some of her
money to buy Halloween stuff at the party store and some used books
at Half priced books. One of the ways we combat the entitlement
issue is talking about people who are less fortunate that we are,
making sure she always sends thank you notes that she made to people
who have given her gifts, and tying having too much stuff to
environmental issues. I hope this gives you some ideas.

7) We started our son out with some really small amount like $1.50 a
week when he was in first grade but it wasn't enough to actually buy
anything with so we heard of the $1 per year of age idea and started
that awhile later. He gets to have 1/3 for spending, 1/3 goes to
savings, and 1/3 goes to charity. The charity part is sent to the
charity of his choice at the end of the year. The savings part we
haven't been really concrete about - he can't just spend it
impulsively but as long as he's had it tucked away for a couple of
months we let him spend it how he'd like. He usually just forgets
about it. His spending money is his to spend on whatever he wants
which can be hard because he'll blow it on something really silly
sometimes but that's a lesson for him to learn. It's not tied to
chores - we tried that but then he thought he should always get paid
for chores and we put an end to that. So chores are just part of our
family routine.

8) I think we started allowance when our oldest son was in 2nd
grade, middle was in Kindie and when youngest could put napkins on
the table. We started with $1.00 a week for the boys. They are now
up to $3.00, with the idea that it includes garbage & occasional
dishwash emptying. This is new, so it doesn't always happen. But
the expectation is that they get it every week for doing normal stuff-
at our house, that includes setting the dinner table, taking dishes
to the sink, & cleaning their room when asked . The boys do their own
laundry with some coaxing, and although I help with this, they're
pretty good about putting clothes away-so is my daughter. I'm not
super strict about it, it seems to work most of the time.
Occasionally a child will say (s)he doesn't want to do whatever, and
we skip allowance that week. My oldest also does special jobs like
mowing the lawn that pay $10.00(usually outside jobs).
Couple of things to keep in mind-I pay on Sundays,and don't always
have the right change, which makes it easy for me to forget. Also,
it's helpful if when you give them money, they put it away
immediately-this saves from losing money, mixing it up with someone
else's, etc.
Hope this is helpful-probably best to start small & build.

9) We started allowance last year, at ages 7 and 11.
½ of age and no rounding…i.e the 11 year old got $5 and $6 when she
turned twelve. Per all we read, it is definitely NOT linked to
chores. That being said, all have chores…it's the small price they
pay for living in a warm, wonderful home and having food, rides all
the PRIVILEDGES that come with being a "wealthy" kid in the city….

It is SO nice, because now at the toy store/dime store/coffee shop,
requests can be met with "if you really want that, you can buy it
with your own money". Then they HAVE to decide whether it's worth it.
Interestingly, 9 times out of 10, they say no…or really think about
it, and we go back and buy it another day.
It has definitely reduced clutter!

We DO NOT make them buy birthday gifts or other presents for friends.
They do not buy meals..etc. We have heard of friends who do that.
Seems a bit much.

Both kids have also successfully saved for a "big ticket item"….and
against "advice" we have also allowed them to buy something big, and
march out the allowances they "owe" on the calendar…i.e if they don't
have $12, they can get the toy, and then mark on the calendar when
allowance should resume…That's not teaching good saving, but don't we
all have credit cards????

It's a good thing…tho at first, we drug our feet doing it…

10) Hi there, I came across this local organization a few years ago.
I would include Moonjar in your compile. They have an awesome
approach to helping kids understand the value of saving/spending and
sharing. It is not an allowance answer but a great tool to use with
allowances.

11) Allowances & Chores (long)
Our philosophy re: allowances: Our primary value/goal/purpose was
to use allowances as a tool for educating our daughter about money
management. The #1 comment experienced parents of young adult
children told us they would change about their parenting of their
kids when younger was, "We didn't do a very good job of teaching
money management, setting up consequences, creating a dialogue about
choices and responsibility re: spending and saving money." So we more
or less created our own curriculum (and there are several excellent
books for parents about all of your choices for teaching money
management to your children, at all ages), which has expanded with
each year.
We started at age 5 — weekly allowance, payable at beginning of the
week, set/negotiated annually every August before the start of the
next school year. We did not tie allowances to paying for chores or
behavior because this greatly complicates the accountability for
money management. We chose to separate "employment [chores]
supervision" from allowance pay. Our philosophy is that everyone in
a family/group living situation has a responsibility to contribute to
managing and caring for the home, as part of living there — not
because you get paid, but because you're a member of the household.
[Who pays you to wash your own dishes when you're an adult?]
Allowance would always be increased every year — and, as she got
older, she got better at supporting her arguments for more vs. less
— i.e. what her expenses were, what our contribution should be to
them vs. hers, etc. If, for example, your child pays for lunch every
day at school, you can include all the costs of lunch in the
allowance — this increases the $ the kid has to handle/remember/
manage every day. Likewise with other regular necessities — or
possibly gifts for friends' birthdays (i.e., you budget an amount
and include in allowance, then give management to child).
From the get-go, we required her to divide up her allowance every
week, physically, into four (4) jars, according to what we had agreed
would be the "budget" amount for each category: savings, charity,
gifts, and personal (her "mad money" — entirely her discretion).
The jars (and necessity for giving cash in proper denominations to fit
into budgeted amounts in the jars) is definitely a minor
administrative hassle, but excellent visual learning about what a
budget "looks like." We always had a strict policy vs. loans from us
(then you become a creditor and, while that can be another level of
learning, we liked the philosophy of only buying when you have enough
money to pay for it now). By about age 8, helped her set up an
account book, in which she would write income and expenses paid out
for each of these 4 accounts, checking to see if the cash in the jar
equalled the written accounting. This could also be done on Quicken.
For quite a few years, it was necessary for parent to sit down with
her, to support/help with the written accounts. This required a great
deal of parental discipline and determination to keep this up (and
adolescent arguments, "None of my friends' parents make them do any
of these dumb accounts!"), and sometimes difficult conversations
about why we required accounting and other parents would just hand
their kids cash (and usually lots of it) on a totally random basis,
without any discussions at all. By about age 12 or so, we went to
the bank and set up checking and savings accounts (also savings
accounts designated "gifts" and "charity"), so she learned a little
about bank management "the old-fashioned way." We repeatedly gave
her the opportunity to have an annual clothing allowance (and 100%
responsibility for all her clothing from that sum for the year), and
she repeatedly declined (she probably would have rec'd more $ for
clothing than we ended up buying for her) — but clothing allowance
is an excellent opportunity to put a large amount of cash in the
hands of your teenager, to manage (and expect that, at least for the
first year, it will all be gone 6 months or less into the year, and
be prepared to be tough).
Our decisions and choices about the money "curriculum" haven't let
up now that our daughter is in college (in fact, they continue to
increase). But we did make our own decisions by the time she was in
9th grade about what our expectations/commitments would be to
helping finance her college education (and we have stuck to them) —
and talked about them frequently, so she would have this information
clearly in her mind by the time she was making decisions about her
choice of college. (This appears to be another area in which parents
often don't have the crucial conversations sooner, which creates
conflicts in expectations later on.) She knows what portion of her
college costs/expense are her own responsibility, and she knows what
we are/are not going to pay for. I think that even if we had the
discretionary funds to send her $300 per month for her own personal
"mad money" at college now, we wouldn't choose to do that. And now
the conversations just continue on additional issues — credit card
management, credit card solicitations, debit cards, advance planning,
segregating your book budget from the year from your latte budget,
evaluating good/bad choices made, accounting and more accounting.

Re: chores (separate from allowance): At age 6, each year — we
discussed and negotiated every August (separate from allowance
meeting) what our daughter's new house chore/job would be for the
coming year. Then each year, the new chore would be added to the
chores she had been doing in the past. First year/chore, we assigned
table setting. Then added table clearing and loading the dishwasher.
Then added washing all the cooking dishes that don't go in
dishwasher. About then we started giving her 3-4 choices of her new
chore for the coming year — complete with job description
(frequency, what needed to be done) — and she'd choose which one to
add on. [We were amazed when she chose cleaning the bathrooms every
2 weeks to doing weekly garbage, which we thought was an easier,
less time-consuming job. But she totally got into doing bathrooms,
and has really learned how to do it right — a great life skill.
More amazement when she chose vacuuming over garbage.] So by the
time she went to college, she has a complete skill set of basic tasks
required to care for a home — and contribute to the family.
Just keep asking what your own behavior is teaching your child, at
whatever age. Just like every other choice we make as parents. [And,
reflect back on how your parents taught (or didn't teach) you money
management — and what your own issues are with money not that you're
an adult, what your own strengths & weaknesses are.]

12) We plan to give our 7 year old $3.50/week ($0.50 per year of
age). We are treating this as more of a salary than a direct chores-
for-cash idea. Basically, as a member of this household, your job is
to do things around the house. As a member of this household, you
also get spending money. We aren't going to have specific penalties -
given his personality, I worry about him saying "fine, dock my pay, I
don't want to do that chore". I know that's what I would've done :-
). We do have a chore chart as a guideline (he's only 7 - we want
to make sure he's reminded somehow :-)), but he knows that he has
other responsibilities that aren't listed - some things we will ask
him directly, and some he may take it upon himself to do. We were
against the idea of just handing over money without any
responsibility tied to it, since that's not how things really are in
the world, and we want him to have some kind of a work ethic and to
realize "hey, I worked hard for this, I'm going to be careful with
it".

As for charity, we are leaving that out of the allowance equation for
now, but we are going to have him go through his toys for toy drives,
and we've always talked to him about how important it is to give in
some way. We'll definitely continue to include him in that. I'm not
worried about a separate savings account just yet - he's such a
squirrel, he's going to save most of it for longer term goals anyway
(he piddled away money that he got at the beginning of the summer and
I think he likes the fact that he can save up). We've had a moonjar
for each kid for years (www.moonjar.com),
but haven't used it. I'm sure that will be incorporated somehow later.

We'll still be getting birthday presents for his friends, and we'll
still have outings that we'll pay for. This is for extra stuff that
we wouldn't normally get for him. We still have the right to veto
what he gets, of course (no 5 pound bags of candy or MA video games :-
)). If he's saved for a long time for something big, we will pay the
sales tax for him (which here, is almost 9%).

We haven't fine-tuned this yet, but we would also would like to have
him, at allowance time, tell us why he thinks that he should get his
allowance. We figure beefing up the verbal skills isn't a bad
thing. He could use his chore chart as a tool, and use it as an
opportunity to tell us things that we may not have noticed ("I didn't
pick up my toys yesterday because I was helping my sister get her
show-and-tell for school."). We may decide to award a bonus to
his "salary" depending on the week that he had. I really also wanted
the idea of adding a "random act of kindness" to his chore chart, but
I never want that to be forced or paid for directly. I like the idea
of a special "chore jar" for when he wants to earn extra money -
stuff that we don't expect him to do but can handle, like pulling
weeds and filling the yard waste container.