Being Creative with a Children’s Allowance
Okay, so how do you use a children’s allowance to the best effectiveness? I’m a parent and I know how kids nag and hassle you when you are in shops asking you to buy the latest toy or candy. A majority of the time I just give in and just buy what they want. Now I’m thinking, I’ve given my child a weekly allowance already, what has he done with it, and why am I buying the items he wants?
I decide to investigate a bit further into this situation. I then go and ask my son what he has spent on the children’s allowance that I give to him on a weekly basis? My son tells me he uses all his money on confectionary and chips everyday and by the time the weekend arrives, he has no more money to spend on.
I’ve only since recognize that I have been giving a kids allowance because I thought that was the right thing to do, but not knowing really the reason I kept on doing this. As I looked into it a bit more, I found that allowances for kids is supposed to be used to teach kids how money works and how to be responsible with it. I guess I’ve missed the mark here by not giving any guidance to my child what to do with the pocket money he is given at the beginning of each week.
I am now having weekly meetings at a dining table in regards to allowances for kids. On Mondays of each week, we create a weekly budget and allocate part of the money to saving and the other part to spending. I would highly suggest saving at least 10% of the pocket money in the bank.
Remember to always talk to your child about what they want to save up for so they have a goal in mind? If it’s something that takes about ten weeks to save on 10% of savings allocated, you can advise them that if they want the skateboard quicker, they can put more of their pocket money into their savings account in the bank.
You can try this technique with allowances for kids and you will soon see your child heading towards saving more of their money so they can reach the amount they are striving for. Once they have reached this, they will feel more confident of what they have achieved then if you had bought it for them instead.
Another strategy you could utilize is if they save $100 in their savings account, you’ll match them dollar for dollar when they reach this amount. It will give your child more incentive to save, rather than spend their money.
Try to make a children’s allowance fun so your kid will enjoy learning about saving, budgeting and even earning money later on. This will develop great money habits for the them which will benefit them greatly later on as their financial responsibility increases when they become a teenager, then later on in their adult life as well.
Teaching-Kids-About-Money.com have a lot of great resources. Kids Allowance Teaching kids should be a fun activity. Giving your child an allowance with help them learn how to be financially responsible.