Looking for a benchmark for pocket money for teens (14 & 16). Currently they get $15 a week. Do people think this is about right?
It’s just for discretionary spending, if they need to buy school lunch then that’s extra. We pay their phone plans as well.
TIA!
Posted Mar 6, 2022, 8:01 AM UTC
As someone who never received pocket money as a kid, but still had to do chores. I think you’re very sweet ☺️
Is that Chelsea and Aubree I spot 👀
Yes!!! Rip Chelsea’s fried blonde hair
Hahah I love this
#cheeseypotatoes
My 12yo gets about $18/mo and my 15yo gets about $22/mo. We started their allowance when they were about 5 and 7yo when we were living in the US. We gave them a $1 per year of age per month. When we moved to NZ we converted it to NZ dollars, increasing by $1 (US) on their birthday month. They also have a small, intermittent income from refereeing a couple different sports that they also play. We do pay for their bus fare and phone plans, so it's only wants that they are spending it on or saving up for.
We've always treated chores and allowance as separate things. My kids do chores because the work of running a home should be proportionally shared by the people living in the home. They take care of their room, take turns on their shared bathroom, help with preparing and cleaning up from meals, one takes care of rubbish and the other recycling, etc. They get an allowance to help them learn how to handle money, manage a bank account, how to save and spend responsibly, etc. So allowance doesn't get withheld if they don't do their chores, but they aren't allowed to do anything fun like play outside, watch TV, or have internet access until the chores are done, so the chores do get done.
I like how you haven’t linked it to chores. Our diet is on the way so hopefully I remember your strategy for when the time comes
Thats like $5 a week? What can they even buy with that?
A litre of 95?
Their needs and some of their wants are covered in the household budget, but if they want something more then they save up to buy it. This often happens with sport equipment or technology. We budget for decent, functional things, but will split the cost with them if they want something more expensive. They still buy lollies or ice cream sometimes, but have gotten pretty good at deciding on financial goals and meeting them.
Such at the beginning of last month my 15yo’s watch broke. They had it for several years and took care of it, but it wore out. I told them what I was willing to spend to replace it. They wanted a sport specific one that was more expensive. So with two months allowance and some pay for refereeing they were able to pay the difference and bought the watch they wanted last week. It encouraged them to take the time research to figure out which features were really important to them, talk to other athletes on his team and see what has worked for them, and where it was most cost efficient to buy it, even lucking out when they found a website where it was on sale.
Probably need to save it up instead of spending the change on lollies at the dairy each week. 1 month for a t-shirt, 6 months for a video game, 12 months for a day's skiing etc.
I put twenty a week in an account teen didn’t know about, that way I could just dole a bit out here and there when they had something decent on. Was good because when they pissed me off I’d just let it build up instead of dishing it out.
Do you buy all their needs? Eg. Clothes, food, lunches, bus passes etc?
If so, then I think $15-20 is plenty - not like there's a lot else they need to buy!
Yes all essentials are covered, sports fees etc. this is purely for the discretionary things like when they go to town with friends or want an ice cream after school.
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They didn't ask for a medal.
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getting downvoted for the truth. are you all over 50 or something cos your boomer views are dead in todays world.
Lol there are many different way a parent can provide though. One, not uncommon, way is to pay your children an allowance that covers many of their basic needs - clothes in particular. The idea is that the child gains some independence in that they can choose how they spend but at the same time learn budgeting and sacrifice (I.ie. if I want the $200 shoes then I can only have a $20 sweater). Doesn’t necessarily cost the parent more or less, just a different to go about provide and educating your child. Maybe you could ask your mum or dad for a little independence and it may help you in being less closed minded.
Hard to.say ,it was 3 milk bottle sweets for a cent when I was a kid. 4 cents for returning a Foxton Fizz bottle to the dairy...
stuff house prices, candy prices are the real cost of living crisis right now
Gone are the days of 50c Lilly bags
Me too could get a mix bag for 5 cents 🤣
these days a cent will get you a single dried lentil from bin inn, if you can find one still open.
Encourage the 16 yo to get a job instead. Honestly the life lessons you learn from having a PT job at that age are huge.
I strongly disagree about encouraging kids into jobs at young ages. They've got the next 50 years of working a 9-5. I don't see the reason to squeeze out an extra couple of years at a likely mind-numbing minimum wage job that will likely impact on either their studies or social life. I think even just waiting an extra year is massive.
Also, I'm not sure I agree with the concept that having a job means no pocket money. Unless if maybe the job is impacting on their ability to contribute to the household, I think it's fair for parents to contribute a small amount of money to build up financial literacy in their kids, and stopping that because they get a job seems a bit unfair imo.
Couple points. Menial work can be a great eye opener for somebody lacking motivation in school or on the edge of deciding what to study if you catch my drift, particularly coming from households where they may have had a more sheltered upbringing. But I had a girlfriend who was “paid” to study instead of a job. She wanted a job to earn money at 16. She did well at school but always had to put in the work to get it, not gifted etc and her parents didn’t want her schooling to suffer so her dad paid her like $5 an hour for meaningful study above 5 hours she already did and capped at $70 a week. Her parents were barely middle class too. Worked well, she used it to her advantage but never took advantage. Seemed great because it was never tied to her results directly. She would then work over holidays etc after exams. This was like 15 years ago. She’s a doctor now so yeah I always thought it was a great idea.
Yeah that does sound like a good system tbf
A part time job is probably a good idea at some point during high school though. If they want to go to uni they'll need a massive initial payment for halls of residence that can't go on a student loan, and even the following payments throughout the year can outpace student loan living costs. Working part time during uni is definitely harder than highschool (at least for degrees with a decent job at the end).
Yeah that's true. Ideally, I'd probably recommend a gap year to spend working, but if that isn't an option, I guess working in last year of school isn't the end of the world. NCEA is significantly less important in level 3, and most kids are starting to get their licenses and stuff.
I'd still recommend a holiday job over that I think, but I did both and didn't die. I did however, have an incredibly jammy after school job that only took 2 hours max and didn't involve any extra travelling. If I had a job like some of my friends who were waitresses, stuck at work till crazy late nights on evenings they have an assignment due, I'd possibly be even less full of praise for the idea.
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That's a lot of money, are they having to be the family taxi for siblings or buy groceries or something?
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It's not, they probably read $80 a week or they expect kids to do nothing all the time
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Username checks out.
MONSTERS
Don’t let mine know she only gets 5
I got $2 a week as a kid, $7 for mowing the lawns, and a further $7 per car for cleaning it inside and out. This thread has made me see just how much inflation really is kicking our assess...
All depends on what mine do around the house I give mine 10 a week for minimum chores more if they do more none if they don’t do anything and I also pay there phone plans each month also
If the kids are doing a decent amount of jobs please give them a reasonable amount. Sure, you got $5 a week 25 years back but that $5 ain't buying shit for kids these days.
My brother tried to pay his 15 year old 10 bucks a week to mow the lawns and clean the car once a week. She told him to fuck off, which I agree with.
Ask them what they would budget for if they had some disposable money.
I got $1 for whatever my age was, e.g a pay rise from $9 to $10 when I turned 10. I had a decent list of chores. Im 26 now so I feel with inflation $20-25 would be about right for their ages
I have two kids around that age, and give them a base $15 with a few opportunities to earn an extra $5 every week.
Yeah, I got $5/hr for any extra chores like mowing laws or water blasting the driveway. Not sure what that value would translate to today but as a 14-16yo I’d be stoked with $15 cash/hr
To me that sounds good. My kid gets $5 if she can answer 5 questions relevant to what she's learning at school, $5 to keep her room tidy, $5 to do dishes and $5 to cook dinner once a week.
So while she can earn $20, she absolutely hates cooking and is happy with $15.
15 was the cutoff point for me, when they can start earning their own money.
Before then, they only got pocket money if they did something for it.
I can't afford to give away free money and personally, I wouldn't anyway as that seems like a bad example to set. I want my kids to earn their living and to get the lesson early that if they don't do the work, they don't get the rewards.
I never got pocket money weekly, and I never did chores, but I received $100-200 every birthday, Christmas, and New Years. Taught me independence to save, and spread out money over a long term I guess.
Definitely didn’t have a kid to do chores ha ha… my house … I do the chores … She cleans her room… her space and does dishes after dinner because she wants … vacuums when she wants … usually often as it’s just us two … If she needs money for a movie or something she will get it .. within reason and can keep the change but taught her money habits early and she usually puts it aside … only 16…
Who knows man, I think kids will get used to whatever. Up until about 13 or 14 my siblings and I got "holiday money" rather than "pocket money". We would have jobs to do every week, feeding the cats and dog, vacuuming, so on, and then we'd get money at the end of each school term (the school holidays), maybe $20-$30 per. This was 15-20 years ago now, but still not a phenomenal amount. Perhaps a good way to do it is consider what sort of thing to want your kid to be able to buy, and see what that costs
I’m not a parent so I can’t offer anything from that perspective but I can offer what my parents did with five kids, including me. Perhaps there’s a nugget of useful information in there.
One of the smartest things my parents did for me and my four brothers was encourage taking of odd jobs for pocket money, even from a fairly young age. We were never given an allowance. They co-signed on savings accounts at a very young age and the money in there was earned and spent and earned interest without any oversight by them.
My first job was pushing in the mail sticking out of the slot in my neighbor’s door when they were traveling. I got paid 20 cents a day. Amusingly it was probably the best hourly rate I ever got in my life.
Eventually I took care of cats and birds for people. I mowed lawns. I pulled weeds. I got a bonus for every dandelion that I got out with its root intact. I had lemonade stands. I built bird houses. I did odd handyman jobs. I helped my mom unload food and operated the money bin at fresh produce sales at the school. I stuffed brochures into envelopes at the travel agency where my dad worked. Eventually I worked at a bicycle shop when I was 15 doing repairs and eventually building bikes and wheels and dealing with customers.
Before working in the bicycle shop, everything was somewhat entrepreneurial. I was directly earning money for specific tasks. I learned what my time was worth to people. The bird breeding business among others also had costs so I learned what it means to run a business. I think you get a greater appreciating for the amount of work it takes to run a successful business. This helps later on if you work for someone else.
I worked through college as well. My parents paid room and boarding and I paid for everything else from working over the summers and my savings. Uni was a huge financial struggle but it was also the good kind of challenge. I learned I could survive pretty challenging situations.
My parents never forced me to do any of this. Each of my brothers was motivated to do whatever they chose to do to earn money. We all learned how to be frugal, how to deal with bosses and the public, and about the compounding value of money. These are things that I see lacking in many of my peers.
As someone that interviewed hundreds of high school and college grads or dropouts over the years, I admire anyone that has done some sort of work on the side, either purely for fun or to earn some money on the side. They turned out to be the hardest working and most resourceful people. The ones that never worked at all and never even did a personal project of any kind and just did 100% school showed their lack of life skills in their job. These are the kinds of things you can’t really teach people. When you are competing for entry-level jobs, having done something useful on the side will open many doors for you.
Short answer. Consider doing what my parents did for me. I didn’t always appreciate it as a kid until I was maybe about 12 and had saved a decent chunk of money. It doesn’t mean you can’t ever give your child pocket money. I would get some on special occasions or sometimes my parents would see me working hard for something that was out of reach and they decided to surprise me.
Feel free to downvote me for not mentioning that hard work is meaningless today because everything is too expensive. You should’ve seen my first few apartments. I doubt many here would live in them. :)
We give our teen and pre-teen $0, unless they help out with some very basic chores. $5 per chore, so clean the bathroom and vacuum upstairs, kachingo $10. Add on a quick bedroom tidy up, boom $15.
So yeah, usually $0.
Loving the use of onomatopoeia
We have $30 up for grabs every week, each job is a % of the money, so 1 kid does 20 jobs, 1 does 15, that's $17 for one, and $13 for the other. Makes the compete to do more jobs.
Gotta imbue that dog-eat-dog capitalist mantra as a survival instinct, do ya reckon? Set em up for a life of wage slavery to The Man.
To make it more realistic there should be tax, here’s your $15 and now you give me back $5, you’re in the 33% tax bracket. Then there’s another $5 for rent & food, so here’s your $5. I would suggest you save as much of that as you can for a deposit on your first home.
Brilliant.
Until they realise that they can agree to do one job each on alternating weeks and get $15 a week each with minimal effort.
Might work for a week until one realises they can shaft the other by doing 3 jobs to the other ones single job.
How many hours work is the 20 jobs? Sounds like slave labour.
I don’t see anything wrong with kids contributing to the upkeep of the house, in fact it’s important.
If you want to raise entitled useless adults, run around after them like a servant.
Amen
Preach
Each job is something like tidy the lounge, do the dishes, feed the dog, hang out the washing, etc.
They used to do it for free.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/awkward-look-monkey-puppet
Love it. Something does seem off though about getting paid to clean their own room? Don’t know what a better answer would be but I guess I have a decade to mull (we have a toddler).
I had to start the job for money for my toddlers after the 2 year old saw my 9 year old get a few coins (I think it was $10 for making breakfasts for the whole week which isn't his job but he lobes cooking and so when he takes it on, I reward that)... then my 2 year old brought in the junk mail and put out his hand - I thought for a high 5 but he looked me dead in the eye and said "my money coins?" (It was freaking hilarious! And I couldn't not give him something so I gave him 50c)
So now they have their Chores and their "extra jobs" - they get nothing for chores (packing up toys, helping with dishes after dinner and keeping their rooms tidy) but the extra jobs they get something for (and for the littles its more a token but I think it gives them the idea and they love the reward) and those jobs are things like helping to wipe up floors, gathering washing, helping put washing away, bringing in post, or my 4 year olds new favourite - washing the bathroom vanity.... I just wish he wouldn't use Toothpaste to do it.
That’s perfect.
I love it!! Thanks for worrying such a cool response. Sounds like a fun family dynamic 😀
Wow chore inflation is real! I'm 26 and used to get $1 per chore, $2 if it was a big one.
Back in my day it was 50c/$1
Haha my parents did this too. My sister always volunteered for the jobs, where I usually didn’t. It’s a good way to tell which kids have got ‘the hustle’ in them from a young age. My sister has a PhD, she has 2 different jobs (due to the nature of her PhD she has 2 part time lecturing jobs) and a kid. She definitely has the hustle.
I do not.
This is what we do.
Paying kids to do what they should be doing anyway?
Okay...
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Why dont you try saying „this is your $15 if you dont do a chore i take $5“
Negative reinforcement rather than positive.
Because it's probably better to relate chores to a job, like real life?
Agree, yes kids should be doing it anyway, but it takes repetition and positive reinforcement for it to become a regular routine. As an adult you have had years of practice and know you need to clean a bathroom. A young person has different priorities. Too old for sticker charts but old enough to want a financial reward. Plus you are also teaching the value of money, budgeting and work ethic.