We also set up some categories in a Google spreadsheet to help them think about how all money is not the same and that we can parcel money into different funds for different uses. We distinguished between:
- Spend - for purchasing anything from a snack to a toy, no strings attached.
- Save - to be used only for an item that the child added to a list of savings target items.
- Share - 10% for their tithe.
- Presents - with increased funds comes increased responsibility to spend their own money to buy birthday presents for immediate family members (in addition to the Christmas presents they've been buying for immediate family and whatever extended family with whom we spend Christmas).
Wright Brothers Memorial gift shop |
They're not the only ones that have had to adjust their decision-making and behavior. We visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in November, and I encouraged the boys to bring their money. Charlie was interested in a collection of Steeler items including a rubber smaller-than-regulation football. Something about the items he chose seemed like a bad investment to me; I thought he could probably buy the same things in a store around home. I talked him out of the items he'd chosen. He switched to several packs of football cards. It all happened kind of quickly. Football cards were clearly more banal and boring than the Steeler logo merch he'd first picked. But I'd already talked him out of those items, so I didn't want to talk him out of the football cards. Oops. If the money belongs to him, and the point is for him to learn which uses of money are satisfying and which ones feel like a ripoff, I should have let him buy the things that first appealed to him.
And that's the whole idea of this thing - to allow the boys to make their own decisions with small but not tiny amounts of money so that as the amounts grow in their lifetime, they'll have a framework for evaluating their own financial decisions based on their priorities, not just shininess.
Another upside is that when the kids want something that I don't want to spend my money on - say a soft pretzel at a sporting event - I just ask them if they have enough money for it. With the steady income they now collect, they ought to. That means I don't have to weigh whether I want to spend money on that or not.
I'm curious about how other parents set allowance amounts and what input you then provide on your children's spending.
Thanks for this, Jeff. We've been inconsistent with our allowance (out of my own lack of organization...) but when we do it, we give the older kids $.50/week, have them put a nickel in the church cup, save a quarter, and put 2 dimes in the "spend" pile. Because it comes out evenly that way :) And I guess we're cheap, judging by the amount of allowance other parents give! We are just getting started and the boys don't have a ton of opportunity to spend at this point, but they do long for legos and it's probably time to start trusting them with a little more $.
ReplyDeleteI've also gone back and forth about having allowance tied to chores. We haven't really, but just expect them to do the chores.
This seems like a good allowance plan and well thought out. Of course I like that you've built in the 10% tithe. they may be more likely to spend their money precipitously than some other children, but they're just the ones who can learn from this framework.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of the big challenges of parenting, as you've recounted. I hate it when my kids choose to buy something that I think is a waste of money and I'm not very good at letting them just do it. At the moment, Colin is spending all his money on fish. He walks down into Yonhi-dong to the fish store with his friend and comes back with neon tetras or an angel fish or a fancy new rock. I'm pretty pleased with this trend.
ReplyDeleteWe give the boys allowance monthly, about $20/month, same for both kids as they do exactly the same chores. Allowance is loosely tied to chores for us and keeps the boys pretty responsible for handwashing breakfast dishes, feeding cats and cleaning litter box and taking out/sorting garbage as well as personal room/clothing tidiness.