Allowance
In addition to starting Kindergarten, Kyle has also started earning an allowance. He can earn up to $5.00 per week ($1 per age).
His chore list includes:
- Put toys away
- Put clothes away
- Make bed
- Homeword done
- Set dinner table
- Clear dinner table
- Clean glass tables (coffee table, end tables)
- Empty trash
He gets 25 cents deducted for any incomplete chores, and we do remind him to complete his chores if we see something undone. So far he hasn't had any deductions.
At the end of the week he gets 50% of his allowance in cash for spending on whatever he wants. Part of our hope is that this cash will cut down on the 'begging' he does for candy and small trinkets when we are out with him doing errands. It also gives him the ability to save for some of the bigger toys he wants between April and December when there are no gift giving holidays. When he's spending his own money, he's a lot more frugal. For his birthday this year, we took him to LegoLand, and told him he could buy a toy for up to $30 at the gift shop, but when we told him the prices were better at Target, he decided without coercion, that he would rather wait and see if he could get more legos at Target instead of the instant gratification of buying something that day. He ended up with two toys from Target instead of just one from the gift shop
The remaining allowance is split equally: 25% gets put into a savings account, and 25% is set aside for gifts and charity.
posted by Jeff at
9:40 AM
5 Comments:
Very good lessons indeed! :)
By
Lilwrig, At
September 5, 2008 2:02 PM
Sounds GOOD!
Don't tell him until after the fact that (as your 'Dollar Grandpa' told Uncle Norm and I after we got our first job - selling newspapers at age 11 &13) "If you can earn money now, there is no reason why you can't always earn money, thus...no more allowance." (not sure if that is exactly what he said - 'thus' may not have been in the phrase - but that was the bottom line).
By
DADO, At
September 5, 2008 3:08 PM
Also :o)
You may want to think of some sort of Matching Fund formula for the savings account part. Like a 401k. He puts a dollar you match it, (or match 50% or 25%). BUT it has to remain in savings for a period of time.
Does he need a Financial Planner? :o)
By
DADO, At
September 5, 2008 3:13 PM
I know we had to do the dishes and make our beds and probably put our clothes away and take out trash (sounds like 'boys' chore, not sweet little girls=). But once The Boys started their Newspaper Career, they started farming out their chores (at least bed making chore) to me -- for a price. Cool. Then Kenny-Boy had a (pretend) girlfriend, Della, who came over in the morning just to make Kenny's bed. Cooler. Della was in heaven, I got richer and parents didn't care who made the bed as long as it got made.
Kyle's Allowance Plan is one of the best I've ever heard. I hear his GrandPa the Financial Planner won't charge Kyle for his services....
By
FAN, At
September 5, 2008 7:16 PM
Good recall Aunty!
In the 6th grade it was Newspaper only, but starting in the 7th (Junior High), I would buy a case of 1 penny candy (100) and sell them for 3 cents at school. 200% profit! Sold out one case every day. I expect that was against the school rules, but not as bad as me and my buddy scamming kids out of their lunch money playing a rigged 'Odd Man Out'.
Paying you (or kissing Della) was just a cost of doing business. :o)
By
DADO, At
September 6, 2008 11:10 AM
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