How can I determine the right amount of allowance to give my children?
I always recommend that people start an allowance when a child is around six or seven years old, and the reason I recommend that age is because thats when they start learning about money in school. They start having a better mental sense of how much money is really worth, so they know that a dollar equals four quarters, equals ten dimes. When kids are younger than that they dont always make that connection. So if your going to start an allowance at that age I recommend that you start with a weekly allowance thats equal to half a childs age. That would be the base allowance. Now I know some people recommend a dollar a week per year of age, so that would be six dollars for a six year old or seven dollars for a seven year old. What I find is that parents of kids that young think thats a little bit too much. They don't want to give their kids, their six year old, six dollars a week. So the half-age rule works very well for kids this age. As the kids get older, (depending on where you live - if you live in New York City, versus somewhere in the middle of the country that is less expensive you might want to give a little more) you can change this allowance accordingly.
