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Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

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Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#1
For those of you with children, what is your approach to allowance? The three common approaches are having a regular allowance, tying it to chores, or no allowance at all. That said, there can be huge variations once you get into the details. I'd love to hear how you help (or helped!) your kids grow into financially responsible adults.

If you yourself had an allowance structure set up when you were growing up that you think had positive impact, would love to hear about it as well.

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#2
My son is only 2 so we haven't gotten there yet. But I like the block of tasks that the child has to do with no reward because that is a refection of real life(we all have to take out the trash, mow the lawn, etc).

But in addition to that you encourage the child to think outside of those tasks and to proposal tasks for money/reward mini-business plans. Get them to think entrepreneurial. Then hopefully as they grow older they may petition the neighbors, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#3
Don't have kids, but heard of a cool company doing something tangential: Current (current.com)

> The debit card for teens (and parents)

> – Automates chores and allowances

> – Notifies you about spending

> – Works with your bank

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#4
post #3

Don't have kids, but heard of a cool company doing something tangential: Current (current.com) > The debit card for teens (and parents) > – Automates chores and allowances > – Notifies you about spending > – Works with your bank

Train them for serfdom while they are young

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#5
I don't have kids but I can talk about my dad.

For all the regular purposes like transport, school fee, repairing the vehicle etc. he gave a little more than required, he knew how much it cost but still let me keep the rest. That was enough to hang out with friends, go to movies (it was cheap back then), a little snack here and there. For anything bigger than that I would ask him and he'd mostly say yes. But never encouraged regular allowance on a monthly/weekly basis.

We weren't affluent, I had to be a little conservative on my expenditure. Was also taught early that you should do/buy four things that you need and one thing that you want.

For better or worse I think this made me more responsible than others who grew up with me.

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#6
post #3

Don't have kids, but heard of a cool company doing something tangential: Current (current.com) > The debit card for teens (and parents) > – Automates chores and allowances > – Notifies you about spending > – Works with your bank

Train them for serfdom while they are young

And the alternative is what? Financial innumeracy is a pretty big problem even for people with steady jobs and decent incomes.

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#7
post #3

Don't have kids, but heard of a cool company doing something tangential: Current (current.com) > The debit card for teens (and parents) > – Automates chores and allowances > – Notifies you about spending > – Works with your bank

Tools for snooping in on your kid's spending is an instant ugh reaction from me.

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#8
post #3

Don't have kids, but heard of a cool company doing something tangential: Current (current.com) > The debit card for teens (and parents) > – Automates chores and allowances > – Notifies you about spending > – Works with your bank

Tools for snooping in on your kid's spending is an instant ugh reaction from me.

I used to think so too, then I had kids :)

One interesting approach is to use snooping tools but to then explicitly tell the kids and to discuss the results periodically. I.e., "my job as a parent is to help you figure out how to be a grown up. Part of that is managing money. I noticed you spent money on X and wanted to talk about it"

I think for the 'cellphone based GPS-tracking' there was also an explicit rule that the parents wouldn't get the kids in trouble for information gathered from the GPS tracking. They might talk to them about it afterwards, but they wanted the kids to be willing to not circumvent the device for safety purposes.

But yeah - it's weird how it both ughs me out and at the same time scratches a deep itch/fear that I'll still be able to keep my kids safe even as they age.

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#9
Allowance for doing nothing works pretty well. When you go to stores make sure they bring their money. They ask for less if they are holding their money. When you tell them they can buy anything they want with their money. Suddenly the crap items that said they wanted are long forgotten. The moral of the story is always go shopping with them but make sure they have their allowance on them. This helps them learn the value of a dollar. They become really cheap.

Re: Ask HN: Allowance for kids?

#10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Train them for serfdom while they are young

And the alternative is what? Financial innumeracy is a pretty big problem even for people with steady jobs and decent incomes.

The app gamifies the uber style serfconomy for kids

However teaching children to do chores out of respect/community, giving reasonable pocket money regardless of tasks achieved, and encourage entrepreneur ism to make more cash beyond that.

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