My Allowance Experience

When I was younger I got an allowance, but it was tied to work that I did around the house. It was a worker’s mentality that made my home life feel more like a job than a home. Most days, I felt like I just wanted to punch out of the home time clock and go to the neighbor’s house, where I could really relax and enjoy life with my friends. Other than time sleeping, from age 10 until it was time for me to go to college, I spent more time over at the neighbor’s houses than at my parent’s house. Since I have over 10 years experience with the work for pay type of allowance model, and since my kids are more similar to me than not… I decided to reject that allowance model. Perhaps for some kids and parents, the old allowance model would be fine. In fact, I have no doubt if the parent approaches it correctly, the old model would work fine, and may even work well for me too, but I think I have a better mouse trap!

My Allowance Approach

Since I want my kids to think about the management of money instead of dreading doing the work to earn the money, I give them the money as described in my previous article called: Allowance Pay Rate For Kids. My line of thinking around my allowance approach is that the set amount of money they get automatically is much like passive income (something I want them to fully grasp and have some day)! In fact, we play a game called “Cashflow for Kids” that actually teaches about passive and the other forms of income.

Paying Money Beyond An Allowance

Now that you know my ideas around an allowance and the simulation of passive income, let me write about how I go a step beyond. You see, I also explained to my kids that if they do chores that I approve of beforehand, they have the option to earn additional money! So instead of yelling at our kids to do chores, they step in and do them gladly! This is in stark contrast to my childhood, where I just wanting to do a quick job to get it over with and go to the neighbor’s house to relax! How do you approach allowances for your kids?