At what age did you start talking about money/giving allowance

[Ceridwen]

My son is about to turn 5 and has demonstrated very little interest in money.  My husband and I talk about money in front of him, explain why we try to be careful with our belongings, why we work, etc.  We also have talks about how lucky we are to have food to eat everyday, a warm house to live in, etc. so that he can start to understand how fortunate we are compared to others.

Most of my friends who have a child the age of my son have already introduced an allowance.  They've done so for general financial literacy reasons, but also because their child has started asking them to buy things when they go in a store.

Our son doesn't ask for anything.  Even at the grocery store, he'll ogle the candy at the check-out and talk about it, but surprisingly never asks for any.  He sometimes mentions things he wants for birthday/Christmas, but those thoughts are fleeting and rarely get repeated (most birthday conversations revolve around his cake ideas).

Should we start having more explicit talks about money with him and give him an allowance, or should we wait for him to demonstrate more of an interest first?  I feel like he's ready (maturity-wise, plus he's a smart kid), but is there a need to "burst the bubble" of financial innocence? I don't necessarily want him to start thinking about money (spending and saving) earlier than he needs to.

When did you start with money talks and/or allowance with your kids? Or when do you plan to?

[ditheca]

Our five year old does very well with her $1/week allowance.  She usually tries to spend it as fast as possible, but that's part of the experience I want her to have!

She often buys gumballs or ice cream not just for herself, but for her big brothers and friends.

Our firstborn didn't start getting allowance at 5, but the younger kids learned to be interested in money by watching the older ones.

Your son will learn about money soon in school when his classmates start buying trading cards or games or whatever is popular in your town.

[GizmoTX]

Does your son know how to identify the different coins & to count what they're worth? If not, that's where to start. Then play store with him. Add bills later.

One of the reasons we started our son on an allowance was to stop the inevitable begging for stuff or a handout. We wanted him to learn to make value decisions with a finite resource, that saving would allow him greater purchasing power if that's what he wanted, & that the cheapest thing isn't necessarily a good or lasting value. It worked; he's 22 now & excellent with money.

[Dezrah]

Have you instead considered having him buy things himself?  For example, if you're shopping at the mall, encourage him to buy a cookie from the stand.  Give him the money and stand back (watching out for him of course).  He has to talk to the cashier, order what he wants, pay for it, and receive it.  This is essentially an adult interaction and should help him feel empowered. With the right approach, you're fostering independence, teaching him social skills, and letting him learn what normal adult interactions are like (making him less prone to manipulation by dangerous persons). 

From a financial perspective, you have the opportunity to drive home the lesson that spending money can be fun when it's done with careful thinking.  Then follow his lead and tweak the lesson as needed.

If he loves to buy by himself, start using an allowance to show it's a finite resource that must be earned.  If you've inadvertently planted the idea "NEVER MONEY OR YOU WILL SUFFER LATER", keep pushing him to understand there is a balance between having money and being happy.

[nyxst]

I have 3 kids. Ages 18, 11, and 6. All savers. My youngest is just starting to be interested in buying things... She's in 1st grade and school always sends book order booklets home. We have plenty of books at home and library cards, but the urge to buy them is very strong for her. Every few weeks, she brings the order booklet home and tells me excitedly which book she wants and why she "needs" it... Haha! So, I give her the money for the book, and then I ask her if she would rather use that money to donate to the school library instead of buying the book. The choice is always hers and if she chooses the book, we fill out the order form and send it in. So far, she has set aside $8.00 towards donating to her library instead of buying books for herself, and she has chosen to  spend $5.00 on a chapter book she really wanted for herself. The librarian is wonderful (I did this with the first two kids also) and she will take the money, allow my child to chose a book from the list of books the library needs (the books are usually about $30 because they have special library bindings to survive elementary school handling), and then she puts a fancy sticker inside the front cover saying " this book was donated by …....". It seems to be a really fun and rewarding lesson about money, about "needs/wants", about improving our surroundings, and about working towards savings goals.

[doug111]

My son is about to turn 5 and has demonstrated very little interest in money.  My husband and I talk about money in front of him, explain why we try to be careful with our belongings, why we work, etc.  We also have talks about how lucky we are to have food to eat everyday, a warm house to live in, etc. so that he can start to understand how fortunate we are compared to others.

Most of my friends who have a child the age of my son have already introduced an allowance.  They've done so for general financial literacy reasons, but also because their child has started asking them to buy things when they go in a store.

Our son doesn't ask for anything.  Even at the grocery store, he'll ogle the candy at the check-out and talk about it, but surprisingly never asks for any.  He sometimes mentions things he wants for birthday/Christmas, but those thoughts are fleeting and rarely get repeated (most birthday conversations revolve around his cake ideas).

Should we start having more explicit talks about money with him and give him an allowance, or should we wait for him to demonstrate more of an interest first?  I feel like he's ready (maturity-wise, plus he's a smart kid), but is there a need to "burst the bubble" of financial innocence? I don't necessarily want him to start thinking about money (spending and saving) earlier than he needs to.

When did you start with money talks and/or allowance with your kids? Or when do you plan to?

I have a 2 year old grand daughter and Ive already showed her cash and she learned the word cash before the word credit I also showed her a credit card and I said bad, very bad, because for the most part they are very bad,

[DaKini]

I introduced an allowance of 1 €/week on my sons 5th birhday. Together withnthis he got an daddybank account in the form of a small account book starting at 10.-. My most important leson i wanted to show was, how exponential growth happens, so the balance is yielding 10% p.M. (2.5% p.W).
The allowance is payable in coins, but since the start i always ask if he wants to invest it instead. It also is due in sunday, to enforce some deffered compensation training.

Nowaydays a year later he nearly always says, i should write it directly to the book. He earns about 2.5 in yield alone so i think, he got the lesson. Sometimes he asks for a larger payout to buy some lego, but he not often buys stuff, however he talks regularly about what he potentially could afford with all his money.

I dont think that just giving an allowance makes children magically  learn how our money driven world works. It is the values and the examples you give. Just handing money just teaches them how the spending process works.

[moof]

Our house runs on a quarter based economy.  We've been giving quarters for age appropriate chores since age three.  He likes to do "garbage walks" to pickup neighborhood trash for example, and he gets 50 cents for doing a good job.  It is not an explicit thing, but we give him a quarter here and there when he has done a good job with helping make dinner, cleaning up, etc.  He saves up until he can get more Legos, and never wants to buy anything else for whatever reason.

[arebelspy]

We started at six months.  She just eats it, but I figure, you gotta let kids make their own mistakes. 

We generally find it in her diaper 2-3 days later.  Little does she know she's been getting the same dime for six weeks in a row now.  Stupid baby.

[SeaEhm]

We started at six months.  She just eats it, but I figure, you gotta let kids make their own mistakes. 

We generally find it in her diaper 2-3 days later.  Little does she know she's been getting the same dime for six weeks in a row now.  Stupid baby.

hahahahahahaha

I do agree that it would never be too early to plant a seed in one's mind.  However, people are born with their own philosophies so do your best, hope for the best, and do what will not leave you with regret in case they don't see eye to eye with you in the future.

[SeaEhm]

We started at six months.  She just eats it, but I figure, you gotta let kids make their own mistakes. 

We generally find it in her diaper 2-3 days later.  Little does she know she's been getting the same dime for six weeks in a row now.  Stupid baby.

hahahahahahaha

I do agree that it would never be too early to plant a seed in one's mind.  However, people are born with their own philosophies so do your best, hope for the best, and do what will not leave you with regret in case they don't see eye to eye with you in the future.

We are talking about kids, right?  I tend to disagree.  I think as parents you can have the most dramatic impact on your children's views of money.  For example in our family we camp and lately it's gotten cheaper and cheaper finding free places to camp etc.  My kids we grow up with this life skill.  I also am teaching them about money on a fairly routine basis.  I think I will have 2 good savers by the time they are ready to venture out on their own.

You teaching them this doesn't mean that they will uphold those views throughout life.

Parents teach their children to not consume alcohol, partake in drug activities, do X, or Y and are there cases where children do those activities?

Do a poll about how many people follow the same religious beliefs (and to the extent) that their parents do.  In your thinking, it would be 100%.  In reality, it is a bit less.

Hence, my comment

[TabbyCat]

I wasn't terribly interested in money as a kid until I had some (first bank savings account at ~5 years old). He may develop interest as it begins to apply to him, but if nothing else he will be pleasantly surprised to find he has a balance in a few years when he is interested. I would start allowance and a savings account. As a kid, I was handed cash and walked to the bank to hand it into my account and that helped me get the concept faster. We did that maybe 1-3 times a month and in the mean time my parents "held on to it" it for me.

[powersuitrecall]

Our five year old does very well with her $1/week allowance.  She usually tries to spend it as fast as possible, but that's part of the experience I want her to have!

Posting to follow!

Our little guy just turned 5 and we are planning on giving him $1 a week.

Fun times :)

[ahoy]

My two kids have been getting an allowance for probably 5 years now.  They don't ask us to buy them anything, just Christmas/birthdays.  they are both very good savers.  They bought some stocks recently -$600 each invested and within 3 weeks they had a check for $85 each due to dividends.  It was a 'special' dividend so they do understand that next time, those particular dividends will be a lot less.  I am proud of them that they seem to be more interested in saving than spending. 

I think I might move to the "entrepreneurial" allowance idea.  I will still give them their allowances, but if they want extra they need to identify what 'extra' work needs doing at our house and they can negotiate with us to how much the job is worth. 

[Zikzin]

My two kids have been getting an allowance for probably 5 years now.  They don't ask us to buy them anything, just Christmas/birthdays.  they are both very good savers.  They bought some stocks recently -$600 each invested and within 3 weeks they had a check for $85 each due to dividends.  It was a 'special' dividend so they do understand that next time, those particular dividends will be a lot less.  I am proud of them that they seem to be more interested in saving than spending. 

I think I might move to the "entrepreneurial" allowance idea.  I will still give them their allowances, but if they want extra they need to identify what 'extra' work needs doing at our house and they can negotiate with us to how much the job is worth.

I opened an account at Betterment and put my kids investments in there, there's a way you can name every investment so it's easy for them to see coz it says their name on the fund.  We also started at 5 years old, now twins are 7 and they get $7/week. We split it into 4 envelopes - Give, Save, Spend, Invest.


That's pretty cool that they can make investments.  Here in Canada you cannot open an account until you turn 18 years old or at least that's what I've learned.  I had my kids invest their money alongside mine in their education fund.  That lesson of learning that if you save you have more and your money makes money is something that's extremely valuable.