How to determine an appropriate allowance for your children
The following are some tips for helping you to determine an appropriate allowance for your children:
1. Consider age and gender. A two year old probably has no use for an allowance other than an occasional trip to the dollar store, the extent of their spending is limited. A teenager however buys gas, attends dances, has outings with friends to pay for, and more, so an allowance would be useful and appropriate for them to have. However, even in that there is going to be differences. For example, a sixteen year old boy may have more need for allowance then a sixteen year old girl. Why? Well, generally when a boy goes on dates they pay, so a boy would need money to pay for the dates, and the girl less money as they are being paid for. So, as you can see it is important to consider age and gender when determining an appropriate allowance for your children.
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2. Contingencies. If you want to make an allowance contingent on grades, completion of chores, or something similar, the allowance has to be appropriate for the task. For example, if your child has to maintain a 4.0 average, $5 a week in allowance is not going to be a very good motivator, where as $50 a week would be. The same goes for chores, if the chores are simple like keep your own room clean, and vacuum the living room once a week then a minimal allowance would suffice, but if the chores include daily tasks, and things outside of their own realm of cleanliness, such as the kitchen needing to be clean in addition to their bedroom, then a higher allowance would be appropriate. So use the responsibility to determine the amount of allowance allotted.
3. What else do you pay for? If you are already giving them lunch money, buying their clothes, filling their tanks with gas, and paying for them to see movies with friends, a large allowance would be inappropriate. A few dollars a week for indulgences and things not covered would be ample. However, if your child is responsible for their own gas, meals at school, clothing, etc. then a larger allowance would be appropriate, and in some cases necessary. This is especially true if they do not have a job.
4. You also need to consider your income. Giving your child $50 a week when you only make $400 a week does not make sense.
If you want to determine the appropriate allowance for your child you have to look at the child. Giving a child who is never home and does little to contribute to the family a large allowance would seem highly unfair to the child who is at home, helps with keeping the home running, clean, and functional, and spends time with the family. You also have to consider some other aspects, such as how the allowance in expected to be used. If you believe it should be used for fun and indulgences too large of an allowance can lead to problems for your child later in life. However, if the allowance in to be used for necessities like gas, food, clothing, then it is appropriate and justifiable to give a bit larger allowance. So, you decide. Most people have found that a dollar per year the child has lived each week is sufficient, and sometimes more than enough. For example, a fifteen year old would get fifteen dollars a week, while the six year old would get six. The allowance would start once school starts, and anything left over at the end of the week goes into a savings account.
