Children and allowances
Those with children often wonder about allowances for their children. Here is something in regards to how much to give your child.
There are many schools of thought on this one. Is a dollar for each year of age appropriate or should they be given tasks with dollar values? Also, some children will promote receiving the amount that their friends get. None of these ideas or suggestions are of much help as they are not based on usage.
The best approach in figuring out an allowance is figuring out what the financial needs of the child are. Sounds pretty grown up, but consider that you already give them money and perhaps more than if they were on an allowance.
Ideally an allowance is given to the child to help them learn how to manage money. With this in mind, having tasks or chores attached to the earning of the money can off-set the management of money. This method can create the child who will do something that he or she should be responsible for only if paid. You may have heard a child ask how much will you pay me if I do the dishes or some such. Does this really teach them responsibility or money management? I think not.
What is needed is that you and the child figure out what their expenses are. Take a moment to review what you spend on them that you feel they should be expected to pay for with their allowance. Once you have the amount, sit down with your child and make a list of everything they are expected to pay for with the allowance. This solves any conflicts that may come up in stores or when they walk out the door to go to the movies or video arcade.
The total required becomes their allowance. As their needs change, be willing to review and change as appropriate.
Other things to consider when determining the dolllar amount of the allowance is that you want to teach them about savings. Therefore, include some extra to the expected expenditures. Inform your child there may be some big item purchases they would like and that they will need to save money for such things.
Now they have control on what to buy and will soon learn how to manage money. It is time for them to learn by use exactly where their money goes and how they can control spending and saving. They will quickly learn how fast the money disappears. The end result is them learning to curb their expenditures.
We all learn in various ways how to keep track of our money. Even adults can lose money. This is well known since there is over $25 Billion dollars in unclaimed property in the United States. This translates into many Americans having money or other assets that have been turned over to the state as unclaimed. To find out if you have any unclaimed income click here.
