What chores did you have to perform to earn an allowance when you were a child?
Only 40% of kids today are offered a means of making money by parents today. Among those parents who still engage in the practice, eight is the most common age to begin, and $4 a week is the average per child paid out.
Ted Rossman, Industry Analyst at CreditCards.com, says it’s a philosophical debate for parents such as his mother, who chose not to reward him for chores. “I remember my mom saying she really didn’t think that she should be paying us just too be her kids, and thought we needed to contribute to household chores just as a member of the household, not in exchange for money.” He says with his young daughter he’s looking at options. “What I’m looking at with her is not an allowance per se but teacher her how to make trade-offs.”
There’s a lot to be said for the education of money management that kids can learn at home. 24% of the adults in the county say they weren’t ever taught about money as children. 65% say they learned everything they know about saving from mom and dad, followed by spending at 45%, charitable giving 38%, borrowing 25% and investing 22%.
“I think it’s a real shame that investing is not taught more in the home, but I think it’s that parents don’t really understand it themselves,” says Rossman. He says a quick lesson in how interest compounded daily can make a significant change in your life is worth learning.