What age to start giving allowance?

[leighi123]

What age would you start giving a kid allowance?   How much?  

I was thinking of stating this as a math teaching tool...

[LuckyMommaToo]

We started sometime when DS was five. He gets $5 a week. One dollar goes in his charity box, one in his savings box, and three in his wallet. After he has $25 in his charity fund, he picks somewhere to send it (he likes the Cheetah Conservation Fund, where you can pick a specific cheetah to sponsor). He's gotten really good about saving for something he wants (usually Legos, Wii or DS games). He'll find the cheapest price (normally Amazon) and calculate how many weeks it will take him to save, which can be awhile when you only get $3/week.

So far his savings are still in the box, but at this point we should probably open a real account for him. I've told him that money is so he can buy a car someday.

DD will be five in May, but so far she doesn't really understand the "value" of money. When someone does give her a dollar, she loses it or offers it back to me. Probably when she starts kindy in the fall I'll begin allowance for her, too.

-e

[fritz]

I started giving DS a dollar once a week on his 5th birthday.  He happily saved his money for about 4 months before spending it on a Lego kit.  Since then he's been a bit more eager to spend than save.  Giving him an allowance was partly so he could learn how to manage money/math and partly so he could have discretionary income.  So if I didn't feel like buying him another Lego kit, he could save up for it himself.

[4evermom]

Ds was ready for an allowance at 5 but we started at 6 1/2 since dh was unemployed at the time.  We started with $5/week.  I felt that was a good amount.  He could either buy something right away for $5 or he could save for 4 weeks and get something in the $20 price range.  I didn't want to frustrate him by giving him too little and have him feel it was hopeless to try to save for something he really wanted.  And I didn't want him just buying a $1 toy or candy every week, either.