Children should not receive “allowances”. They need to be taught the relationship between labor and reward. Pay them fair wages for labor rendered. Then teach them what to do with it.
I never received an allowance and neither did my children. Not that they we didn’t buy them what they wanted occasionally, but for the most part they earned their money.
I got a few bucks a week as a lad (age 7-11ish) which was great – I’d ride my bike to the local convenience or drug store and buy my favorite 60-cent candy bar (this was the mid-late 90s) or a pack of baseball cards on a special occasion.
It’s funny to recall those days because I was nearly the same way when it came to money as I am now. I’d carefully choose which treat to buy, then I was sure to enjoy it once I bought it. Although I never saved anything.
Anyway – indexed for inflation, about $5/week would be the same amount today. Seems fair for a youngster.
Mike, when I was 7-11ish, that 60-cent candy bar cost me a nickel. I earned that nickel and whatever else I could get. Most of that “whatever else” came from raising tobacco (with my uncle’s supervision). Now there’s a job that earned every cent from really, really hard work.
This is a hard question! When I was very little, maybe only five years old, my weekly allowance was a nickel. My family took a trip cross-country to visit my mom’s sister and her family. I was hanging out with cousins when the topic of allowance came up. They told me they got a quarter each week. I was so outraged and shocked, that memory has stuck with me all my life. I asked my parents why I only got a nickel. I don’t remember their answer, it must have been unconvincing. Today, with three teenagers, I give them $10 each a week, with which they buy anything I won’t buy for them, such as going out with friends after school, zines or music or video games, clothes or books beyond what I might buy for school, etc. It’s enough to participate in teen culture to some degree, but not enough to let them feel like they won’t be needing a part-time job someday soon. Of course this money comes with mini-lectures on fiat currency, inflation, minimum wage, the cost of college and apartments, defining poverty in absolute or relative terms, any and everything I can think of where they can consider their privileged place in the world, how many weeks at $10 a week it’ll take to get things, and how the purchasing power of cash degrades over time.
Children should not receive “allowances”. They need to be taught the relationship between labor and reward. Pay them fair wages for labor rendered. Then teach them what to do with it.
What they need to give themselves some independence and learn to manage it and not what they want.
I never received an allowance and neither did my children. Not that they we didn’t buy them what they wanted occasionally, but for the most part they earned their money.
I got a few bucks a week as a lad (age 7-11ish) which was great – I’d ride my bike to the local convenience or drug store and buy my favorite 60-cent candy bar (this was the mid-late 90s) or a pack of baseball cards on a special occasion.
It’s funny to recall those days because I was nearly the same way when it came to money as I am now. I’d carefully choose which treat to buy, then I was sure to enjoy it once I bought it. Although I never saved anything.
Anyway – indexed for inflation, about $5/week would be the same amount today. Seems fair for a youngster.
Mike, when I was 7-11ish, that 60-cent candy bar cost me a nickel. I earned that nickel and whatever else I could get. Most of that “whatever else” came from raising tobacco (with my uncle’s supervision). Now there’s a job that
earned every cent from really, really hard work.
This is a hard question!
When I was very little, maybe only five years old, my weekly allowance was a nickel. My family took a trip cross-country to visit my mom’s sister and her family. I was hanging out with cousins when the topic of allowance came up. They told me they got a quarter each week. I was so outraged and shocked, that memory has stuck with me all my life. I asked my parents why I only got a nickel. I don’t remember their answer, it must have been unconvincing.
Today, with three teenagers, I give them $10 each a week, with which they buy anything I won’t buy for them, such as going out with friends after school, zines or music or video games, clothes or books beyond what I might buy for school, etc. It’s enough to participate in teen culture to some degree, but not enough to let them feel like they won’t be needing a part-time job someday soon.
Of course this money comes with mini-lectures on fiat currency, inflation, minimum wage, the cost of college and apartments, defining poverty in absolute or relative terms, any and everything I can think of where they can consider their privileged place in the world, how many weeks at $10 a week it’ll take to get things, and how the purchasing power of cash degrades over time.
Bet your discussions are a lot of fun with three on one – sheesh, go ask Dad.