When to Start Your Child on an Allowance

This is a question that has been debated by many Child Developmental Experts for generations whether it is valuable or harmful giving your child a weekly allowance. This also has to be a decision made by your family, what works for you. Some people start giving children an allowance at the age of 3 years!

Children learn from their parents and those surrounding them. They realize at an early age that you have to hand over the green dollar bills and in return get “stuff” from stores. From the age of about 6 children do start to learn about money – the fact that you leave a store with merchandise when you hand over dollar bills.

Like with most things in life, children learn through experience. Setting and doling out a reasonable weekly allowance will enable your child to make decisions about how their money is spent. If the allowance is too small – such as a  dollar at a time, your child will not be able to make financial decisions today!

Setting an allowance for kids is a great way to tie into chores. Getting paid for something that you child did at home or in the yard is setting a great learning environment. Work (chores) =money (allowance)!

Your child will soon realize that parents work hard for money too!