Most importantly as a parent, an allowance serves as a way for you to teach your kids how to manage money. A kids’ allowance can also be used as a tool for teaching financial responsibility.
An allowance is an amount of money that you give to a child to spend on whatever he or she chooses. It’s usually (but not always) a weekly amount of money earned through performing specific tasks around the house or at school.
For the overall age group covered by the pocket money index, ages 4 to 14, the typical kid in this range earns $8.91 in allowance per week. Looked at over a whole year when earned every week, this comes to $463 per year.
If you’d like to give your kids an allowance, set your reasons for giving an allowance and consider the financial situation of your household. What specific financial responsibility skills do you want your kids to learn?- Ways to spend or save wisely?
- The value of money?
- Why they should develop a solid work ethic?
Traditionally, kids get an allowance of $1 to $2 per week for each year in age. So, if you have an 8 year old and a 12 year old, you might consider paying them $8 and $12 per week, respectively.