One of the best bits of advice I've read on the subject of allowance and getting kids savvy and healthy with money was all about modelling. Parents model their responsibilities and accountability by going to work and doing their job. A child's 'job' is school, they are responsible and accountable to go to school, participate at their comfort level, keep their work organized, complete their assignments and attend. So their allowance becomes a salary...kind of neat I think :) I really like the belief that responsibilities to home and family are not something to negotiate with financial rewards, those responsibilities are to instil good habits in cooperative living and loving, respectful behaviours towards one's home and family.

If your child is academically inclined there can be consideration for using excellent test and assignment outcomes as an opportunity for bonuses. This isn't a one-size fits all solution but it is an interesting option.

This is an active discussion in my house currently - our kids are just getting old enough to grasp the concepts of money, so I'm super keen to follow this thread! I do think conversations about financial choices should go hand in hand with the start of allowance. Personally, I wouldn't force either child to practice one of the other when it comes to saving/spending/giving and honestly looking forward to the discussions around each.

Thanks for getting the Parenting Forum off to a good start!!

My kids are 4 and 6. I'm not sure that I can get away with giving them different amounts. I have been able to communicate to them that money is a finite resource.  Hopefully the allowance thing will drive that point home even further when it is their own money. 

I give $1 per week according to their age. 15 yr old gets $15 per week. 

My kids have gotten allowance once they were old enough to start doing chores. $1 times their age. 100% of that goes into savings. As they get older, and want to buy things like Christmas gifts, on their own, it comes out of their money. Anything they get from birthdays, Christmas, or babysitting, they get to keep as pocket money. Once they start working, usually restaurants, we require 100% of their paychecks, and 50% of tips go into savings. That adjusts to 60% in savings once they start driving, and have to pay for a car. The more pocket money they have, the more we expect they pay for on their own. 

Great thread folks!

I've got 2 kids and my oldest is in 1st grade. I've been thinking about the allowance thing for a couple months now, since my kid has started saying "i want to buy that" lately. I like the $1/grade/week, but that doesn't seem like very much, but on the other hand $1/age/week seems like too much!

Maybe I'll try $.50/age/week...

I'm very committed to "teaching/making" them save. I didn't really get that lesson as a child. 

We pay our kids 10 cents per job and they each have 7 jobs per day. Jobs range from “take out the trash” to “load dishwasher”. We even add fun jobs like “practice basketball.” We use a magnetic jobs board. (I think ours is by Melissa and Doug on Amazon). 

My girls are 7 and 9. I just stared to give them an allowance a few weeks ago, just a little after I started YNAB, I am doing it to teach them to be responsible with money. They each have their own budget in YNAB and I have a category in my budget for their allowance money (the money stays in my checking account until they buy something with the money. They each get $5 every two weeks when I get paid. It was really all we can afford to give them right now. They have categories in their budget to decide what they want to do. I make them put $1 of the $5 into long term savings and .50 into giving. The rest they get to decide which category they want to save for.

We give 50 cents a week per year of age, so the 10 year old gets $5 and the 8 year old gets $4. At their age, that is plenty of money for spending on wants. They both have YNAB budgets so they can learn to budget their money and WAM for tradeoffs. And yes, it does include tzedakah, which is something they learn about in religious school. We have them save it and hand it over to us to write a check so our family can save on taxes.

As they get into high school, the amount of allowance will increase significantly (probably in the $2-3/week/year of age range... I haven't worked out the exact math yet) as we shift more responsibility for expenses to them to prepare them for moving out of the house. That is something my parents did with me. I was responsbile for all my expenses outside of food/clothing/shelter and use of the family cars. My dad the CPA gave me an accounting ledger to manage my budget... my kids will be able to use YNAB instead.

I started with a doller per age, like many did.  I started once the child turns 4. We use the Money Savvy piggy banks with 4 slots for spending/saving/giving/investing. We do  add interest, like many others do as well.  

My long term plan is to do exactly what Relieved  did. I think we're going to start with school supplies. I think we'll begin as soon as the children learn how to carry numbers when adding. 

Edited to clarify name of piggy bank.

Have only started pocket money for the girls a month ago.  We have a holiday planned and would like them to have spending money of their own.
They help out around the house as they are part of the family and now that I am working more hours, I appreciate any extra help I can get (even a poorly vaccumed floor  😉 ).  When they complain, I explain that they benefit from me working more. If we are at the bookstore they nearly always get a book, when the Sims gets an update, I would get it for them.
Trying to find that balance between "this happens as you are part of the family" and also learning about earning with managing money.

My father wanted to give us kids a dollar for every A on our report cards. We got letter grades starting in seventh grade so roughly ages 12-18.

My mother thought that "paying for grades" was a terrible idea.

For me, the reality was that twice each year I received a token infusion of cash sufficient to pay for one ticket to the movie and some pizza or a hamburger.

The money was no incentive at all. 

I didn't think about it except when I handed over my report card and received a little cash. 

I didn't pay attention to my siblings grades. 

Note: we also received small weekly allowances that were not tied to anything. There was no compulsory saving or charitable giving. I saved anyway, graduating to a passbook savings account at the local bank when I was in middle school (age 10?)

We kids could earn more by doing chores above and beyond what was required of us indoors and outdoors as members of a household. My mother priced out the jobs and posted a list.

Eventually we got paying jobs outside our parents' sphere.  By then we had learned how to work.

I have a 6 and 8 year old.  I don't give them money every week just for being alive, damn I wish someone did that for me, and I'm not a believer that teaching kids that $ just for living is a good lesson b/c that's not real life.  They have a list of weekly responsibilities that they have to do - and each thing is worth both $ and stars.  For instance, 'clean room' is one of the items, and it's worth $.25 - EVERY DAY.  But emptying the trash cans is worth $.50 and that's only once a week.  On slow weeks, they tend to earn around $1.50 or $2 if they don't stay on top of their responsibilities. But they could earn as much as $8 in a week.  If they don't do any responsibilities, they get no money.    I tell them THEY have to buy what they want, and "for now" I will buy them what they need, but that will change as they get older, and it also changes if they're disrespectful of their things (for instance my daughter just bought herself a new pair of shoes b/c she lost 2 pairs in 1 month!).  So I never have the Target issue - they bring a little wallet with them and look in there to see if they can afford what they want.  If they can't afford it, they don't get it.  It's that simple.  I'm about to layer in savings, but haven't done that yet.  They've started a lemonade stand recently - they pooled their $ to buy the ingredients, then ate most of the ingredients and realized that was a bust.  But then they did it again, and earned $50!  They were astounded that most weeks they get $4 and this week they got $50 - so trying to teach them the power of investing and entrepreneurship too.  Don't give kids money for nothing.  Learning the power of your own two hands to earn a living is another way to build self-confidence and independence.  And they feel that much more pride in what they bought.  You know that gift you bought with your aunt's $20?  You can't remember it, can you?  But I bet you can remember something you worked really hard to get...  they'll care for their things more when they've worked hard and saved long to get it.  

My 12 year old gets $12/week. 1/3 to savings, 1/3 to spending, 1/3 to giving. When she has saved enough, we use a trip to the bank to deposit. I have to nudge her on the giving. And she pretty much has to buy whatever she wants beyond clothing and food. Works reasonably well. 

What age did you start giving your kids an allowance? -probably around age 10

How much and how often? $10/week, but only if they do their assigned chores, on time and up to my level of expectation. If they do a poor job or don't do their chores, they still have to do their chores, but they get no payment for the week.

Do you force them to practice saving and/or giving? Yes, I force them to keep 10% in savings for emergencies, and I encourage them to drop a dollar per week into the basket at church (which can come out of the 10%), but that is optional. Its of no value if their hearts are not in it. But they see me give every week and they are often eager to emulate.

Do you allow them to buy whatever they want with their money, even if it is ridiculous? with the remaining 90%, yes, they can do what they want, its their money.