As a grandmother i thought i would share the system i used with my 2 children. From the age of aobut 6 and 8 we had an allowance - not dependent on chores. We entered into an agreement aobut this , the allowance was divided into 4 parts (not necessarily equal), and they had some financial goals that we agreed to together. the parts were:
1> immediate spending - "play money" to be used completely as they wanted with no control from me - lollies, cheap toys, presents, whatever
2> short term savings - they set a goal of something a bit larger that required saving for - perhaps a trip to the movies, a new barbie doll, something which would take anything from 1 - 3 months to save the money for (often by the time the goal amount was achieved they had decided to spend it on something different - but that was alloable)
3> long term savings - this would take up to a year to work towards, and probably needed to be subsidised by matching cntributions from Mum or income earnt from extra chores, part time jobs etc(my 7yr old daughter made and sold chocolate cakes to raise money for a bike). goals such as new bikes, play stations, etc were in this category
4> family savings. We all contributed to this fund - I matched (or bettered) their contributions. we set a goal together - equal say from all parties - for a family activity or goal and saved towards this. One year they saved so on our family camping holiday we could go on an expensive "tourist" type day cruise, other times trips to the Zoo, night out at a "nice restaurant", or other such activities were agreed upon. Note this activity was mainly chosen by the children - not the adult.
this system worked well, they moaned about it, but grew up with an understanding of the value oF money, and of the need to save for the good things in life
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As a grandmother i thought i would share the system i used with my 2 children. From the age of aobut 6 and 8 we had an allowance - not dependent on chores. We entered into an agreement aobut this , the allowance was divided into 4 parts (not necessarily equal), and they had some financial goals that we agreed to together. the parts were:
1> immediate spending - "play money" to be used completely as they wanted with no control from me - lollies, cheap toys, presents, whatever
2> short term savings - they set a goal of something a bit larger that required saving for - perhaps a trip to the movies, a new barbie doll, something which would take anything from 1 - 3 months to save the money for (often by the time the goal amount was achieved they had decided to spend it on something different - but that was alloable)
3> long term savings - this would take up to a year to work towards, and probably needed to be subsidised by matching cntributions from Mum or income earnt from extra chores, part time jobs etc(my 7yr old daughter made and sold chocolate cakes to raise money for a bike). goals such as new bikes, play stations, etc were in this category
4> family savings. We all contributed to this fund - I matched (or bettered) their contributions. we set a goal together - equal say from all parties - for a family activity or goal and saved towards this. One year they saved so on our family camping holiday we could go on an expensive "tourist" type day cruise, other times trips to the Zoo, night out at a "nice restaurant", or other such activities were agreed upon. Note this activity was mainly chosen by the children - not the adult.
this system worked well, they moaned about it, but grew up with an understanding of the value oF money, and of the need to save for the good things in life
February 11, 2009 - 7:18pmThis Comment
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