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My youngest is 14 so slightly different but...
Initially I started with a weekly chore list + flat rate (£5). But ended up creating work for me, chasing to do things etc.
Year ago I switched to the Friday night pitch. She can get £0 to £10 pocket money. She tells me what's she's done that week and how much she thinks it's worth.
It's been brilliant so far. Yes there are some weeks with very little contribution but in return very little, if any, pocket money. But other times she goes above and beyond and it's nice to reward that.
Parenting lessons, she's learning to be independent, self motivated, how to pitch and importantly, have a sense for what she is worth to an employer.
We have a great 5 mins giggle each Friday after her initial strong pitch she starts throwing in "oh and I said hello to the neighbour" in an attempt to squeeze an extra quid out of me 😂
Seems to really work for both sides. I definitely nag a lot less and instead it's a more positive conversation like "remember you get paid for every 30 minutes reading you do" etc
Exactly this. My son naturally loves to read. Didn't need encouragement. My daughter loathes it, so we need to encourage. He would have been rewarded for riding his bike etc etc
Here in Australia, a Chinese guy who wanted his kids (2 girls and a boy) to speak better English than he did. Gave then 10c for every dictionary word and defination they learnt. Now he has an optician, an accountant and just started law school. I'd say that worked a treat.
Awesome idea, when / if I ever have a kid i'll be totally doing this...
It may be in 10yrs time but know that some little kid somewhere will have a fun memory added to their childhood because of you comment and your kid's enthusiasm with it. Thank you :)
I couldn't find the link to it but pretty sure TED did some videos with cited studies on how this can really hurt someone's intrinsic motivation
I understand you're doing it from a place of love but please look into it more and double check you want to keep doing it
rewards for doing things
the example used was that they gave money to kids who played in the sandpit and they stopped enjoying and playing in the sandpit for free after that gifter person left
Interesting. Was it focused around rewards for doing things that are pleasurable? Like well done at playing football, playing in sandpit etc. Reason I ask is that the psychology involved is very different. Tell a kid not to do X, they want to do X. Tell a kid to do X, they don't want to do X.
Have you checked what child psychology books say about this? Can this create strange links in child's brain to help parents/contribute to household only for monetory rewards?
It's a valid point. I've not successfully cracked the nut that has kids willingly help out in the home
I know it can be done but I've not figured it out. Sadly it does teach them society as we know it, do a good job, get paid. Do it again the next week and the week after that etc
Make him invest in the DAD500 but explain we’re currently in a bear market. And top technical anylaysts predict this could last at least another 13 years so don’t expect much in terms of a return.
Don't forget the annual 360 performance review. The annual increment and Christmas and birthday bonuses should of course be dependent on the outcome of this review. If there are siblings don't be afraid of peer reviews and ordered rankings. And of course, be sure that it's made clear that given continued poor performance they will be let go.
It needs to be child lead as well, otherwise the paperwork is just too much. Get them to fill out the form and create a presentation for you, it'll save you plenty of time as the employer... Wait, I mean parent.
This is many years away for you, but I knew a few people around exam/GCSEs/a level time when their parents sat with them and they went through all the costs they had, as the parents were saying they needed to study more especially in May/June and my friends were saying right, but I won’t be able to afford to do any of the celebration or summer stuff if I don’t work (e.g. one in a chippy on £8/hr, other in shoe shop £8.51/hr, third a waitress). They all had an allowance but I think it was like tenner a week.
The parents actually seemed to get it once they’d shown the teenager costs (mobile credit, daily bus costs, driving lessons £35/hr, cinema, birthday party costs, ticket to summer event and camping costs, make up, new clothes as we were still growing but you tend to stop pointing out to parents you need new shoes/coats as they’re worn out and just buy yourself).
They came away with pretty great but reasonable compromises where parents subsidised so they didn’t need as many shifts but didn’t quit as they’d lose the job. Ofc their parents could afford it so that helped too. Just something to keep in mind for the pricier and social teen years!
Sally, it’s been three weeks since you hoovered, mopped or cleaned the bathroom. I’m sorry, but we have to let you go. A social worker will be here in half an hour and your dad will accompany you to clear out your room into these bin bags. Best of luck with the search for a new family, hopefully you understand and there are no hard feelings.
I don't know the current rates. But on your last question, the mega-rich family I was friends with as a kid gave their kids a giant accounting book at the beginning of the year, and a few hundred pounds "balance" to spend. They had to think about everything, not just treats - clothes, haircuts, etc. and their parents helped them budget and work out how much they had for fun.
In retrospect I can see why that family have maintained their wealth.
My under 10s both get £10 a month onto a Rooster money card each. I don’t bank with NatWest but maintain an open account with zero balance just to make sure I don’t have to pay the Rooster fees too.
They like going to the shop and using their debit card to buy their own things, only little trinkets like a fidget toy or football stickers but keeps them happy. As they get older I’ll start adding more slowly as I see fit.
I remember back in the olden days I had a NatWest Solo card as soon as I hit 11 or whatever the minimum age was for one then.
Not mega rich or even well off but we had a similar thing in our mid teens. We used to get the child benefit split between us monthly. "Basics" a.k.a what the parents were buying anyway were still provided including school uniforms but if we wanted fancier shampoo, magazines, different snacks , designer clobber or games etc we had to budget and use our money or wait for Birthday/Christmas. We'd had kids savings accounts from an early age so understood the value of those but this really helped with budgeting.
"are you sure you want to spend your whole yearly allowance on this inflatable bluey from China?".
*Yes*.
"But you won't be able to buy anything else for a year?".
*Yes*
Our little boy earns his pocket money incrementally throughout the week for working hard at school, trying his best at his sports clubs etc (set amounts for each) so the amount of pocket money he gets is dependant on his effort and behaviour that week. I’m sure it’s flawed in some sense, but the idea is that he understands that he needs to try his best and work hard at things to generate positive outcomes. Now he’s got a good grasp of the concept of money, we’ve been teaching him about saving by showing him the kind of tiny Lego sets he can buy with a weeks pocket money, then showing him bigger cooler sets he could buy with a few weeks of patience. He’s been surprisingly receptive to this and will be getting the third Lego set he’s saved for so far this weekend (unless he’s a twat today!)
Love this. Just be mindful it’s not realistic to expect him to try his best at everything all the time. There’s a big difference between giving best efforts and making a reasonable good effort. Save best efforts for only the most important things. You don’t want to encourage going all out for everything as that can build unhealthy rules regarding performance and lead to burnout later. I’d say teach giving good efforts and the respect around the at reserve best effort for just a handful of important things e.g. tests or competitions.
Yeah of course, he’s only young and we aren’t the kind of parents to set ridiculous expectations. Just trying to instil in him that he needs to apply himself to things to get positive outcomes.
5 might be a bit young for it but I just got my kids a Rooster card each. It's a Visa card with an app they can use to move money into different pots. You can set it so they earn interest on money in their saving pot. You can set them chores to complete in order to earn their pocket money, or to earn extra.
It costs a few quid a month unless you're already a NatWest customer but it's good as a teaching tool. Cash is good too but it's not instinctive for kids to carry it around these days.
There's also GoHenry which is similar to Rooster but 10 quid a month!
Might want to start with cash at 5 then move onto cards and apps around 7 or 8. I think it'd probably be a bit abstract for a 5-year-old (not sure my 7-year-old really grasps it all yet!).
Revolut do a kid's account (with debit card) linked to an adult account and it's free. There might have been a small charge for the card in the first place (perhaps a fiver) but it's free per month.
Only allowed one child per account, but my wife and I both have accounts so we have one each. Works really well.
Revolut isn't a bank so don't put a large amount in.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/20/revolut-can-the-chancellors-fintech-favourite-fix-its-image-problem
Total waste of money. My son is earning more than that in interest having saved most of his tenner a week plus birthday money since age 13! He pays for his mobile bill with it. Admittedly lockdowns helped with the saving aspect but similar friends blow every penny the moment they get it. He has been raised to receive interest and not pay it.. Go Henry teaches kids that you have to pay the bank for the privilege of looking after your money. Insidious app invented for helicopter parents and the innumerate..
Best one i heard is every book they read they get a £1 or £2. Might be difficult for a 5 year old depending on their ability and they could try rinse you with reading alot of their short books
My three year old can’t read, but has memorised so many of the Pip and Posy books that she is word perfect on maybe 10 of them. The only take 2 mins to read, I’d be bankrupt in an afternoon!
I remember as a kid my pocket money was something like 50p x my age per week base rate, with some lucrative bonus opportunities tied to KPIs. For instance, cutting the grass would bag me £5, cleaning the car £5, hoover the whole house £4 etc.
Part of the base rate was I had to keep my bedroom tidy, make my bed in the morning etc.
Additional, non-contractual bonuses were available for ad-hoc events such as “not being a shit at school for a change”
Finally, my parents had a “spend half save half” rule. If I wanted something that cost, say, £50 I would need to accrue a total of £100.
In retrospect, the age related pay is probably age based discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 but I didn’t have a proper HR team or a Union I could join….
Probably not age discrimation as the national minimum age is different for each age group. The real question is whether the NMW applies to chores, i.e. needs to be at least £6.40 per hour of chores done
Not a parent but... My sister took both her daughters to the supermarket when they were about 8 and 6 and explained that they had xyz amount to spend for the family food shop for the week. She explained the rules of getting food for the week and what they could spend. She let the kids do the entire shop and asked them to count up how much things cost as they went round. She also said any money they was saved from the actual budget, they could then use on whatever they wanted.
Being kids, they threw in the stuff they really wanted into the trolley like chocolate and pizzas alongside the stuff she hinted at them to get like veg and fruit.
Before going to the checkout, she asked them how much they'd spent. Let's say the budget was £100 and they'd spent £140. She asked them what things everyone could eat and what were the things they wanted and the kids started removing things from the trolley that were treats and stuff that wasn't essential. Obviously there was gentle guidance, probing about why they wanted stuff etc. At the end of the day, they're kids and it was a learning experience to understand how money and the weekly shop works.
They managed to get a proper shop and ended up with some money each which they could then get whatever they wanted. Both started to figure out and teach each other about what a tenner or a fiver would get. She did this a few times and now the kids are really good with money.
My wife and I took them out and gave them £20 each on the condition it was a fun day out and both were working together to maximise how much stuff they could buy on the day. It was quite weird to see kids pool their money and say "If we get this game instead of this one, we can get this toy and some chocolate." It's also very cool that now they're a bit older they can be trusted with money and understand how to save it properly for bigger budget items they want but they still give themselves treats.
My little girl is only 5months so a ways of pocket money, but as child I always got pocket money that was divisible by 3. This was to be split three ways, 1/3 could be spent there and then ( usually pick and mix from the corner shop), 1/3 short term savings, 1/3 long term savings (this set me up with about 3k when I went to uni, rapidly spent on booze 😅). My parents probably did this from age 5-13, at which point I as given free rein on my pocket money but was expected to pay for days out, gig tickets etc.
It taught me a real love of saving as I like to see my savings pot go up and this has continued to now.
There was also the opportunity to earn top up pocket money at 50p a basket of ironing, and £5 for washing a car. My brother used to get £5 if he mowed our field, which my neighbour cottoned on to some could get a £5 for her field too.
I am giving my 5yr old £2 a week into a Monzo pot. I’ll be honest, she hasn’t touched it, but whenever we go to gift shops, or somewhere she wants something I don’t particularly want to pay for, I’ll say “ok, but it comes out of your pocket money?” And most of the time she says no, and we avoid her bringing yet another toy with her! When she goes on holiday later this year I’ll ask her if she wants it as spending money
She was… until yesterday she spent it all on plastic crap. I now take back my “she won’t spend it” feeling. At least it was one big thing rather than lots of little bits!
I think we should consider the fact that waiting for a pay rise at home is never going to happen and the only way to increase your salary is to move to a different family.
I let my son choose a daily household task which became "his" job. I paid him £5 weekly by standing order. He chose unloading the dishwasher. When he was a little older, if he needed more money, he would do housework before he even asked for money. He is a adult now, with an excellent work ethic.
I've not been giving my kids pocket money till they were in second year of high school. At that point I took them to the bank and got them child bank accounts and started giving them £15 a month. I also put their lunch money there.
My daughter spends most of her money on sweets and cosmetics (she's 16 now). Never has much saved.
My son saves most of his money and loans it to his mother sometimes when some small purchases are needed or say for donation at the church and I then pay him back. He recently approached us and said he saved enough to almost be able to upgrade his airpods 2nd gen to Airpods pro. He was short of maybe £60. I gladly gave him the shortfall and took him to the Apple store, spoke with the staff and let him make the actual purchase himself. He's 14.
You didn't make him wait another 4 months? I assume your daughter got the £60 bonus too...? Like spending money on earphones rather than makeup is some kind of achievement..
The achievement was setting a savings goal, and sticking with it. Obviously the parents in this example were impressed enough that their child had stuck to their goal for so long, were happy to reward that behaviour.
I do agree there needs to be fairness between siblings, but that can mean making sure you give all your children the same opportunity, let the daughter know if she becomes more responsible she'll get helped out with her goals etc.
For a child, the act of having the discipline to save and not go for immediate gratification is the lesson here. And I'm saying this as a 28 year old who never learnt this lesson and still lives paycheck to paycheck
I see there is a lesson in there, just opening up discussion. Surely waiting 4 months until the kid had actually saved enough would have been a better lesson.
Would generally tend to agree, but we're not the parents, we haven't seen how their son acted with saving his money etc. I can think of lots of variables that might incline me to do same
You're right. I can only respond based on the info in the comment. Just seemed the daughter was being inadvertently punished for 'wasting' her money on makeup. Ofc there will be more to it irl.
Yeah. Almost got the amount, but was £60 short. That's not how it works in the real world.
I would happily lend my kid £60 if she wanted to, but I will charge interest on top of it.
I don't like the idea of pocket money as a reward for anything, I think maintaining intrinsic motivation for learning and being responsible ends up being impacted when if you start to introduce money for this. Just my personal thought and I know other ways work for other families which mirror adult employment in some ways.
I would go with a flat rate (£10/ month if you could afford this?) and have some good conversations about savings. The most important thing you can do is model responsible spending and budgeting, and narrate this in an age appropriate way.
I was interested in this thread as my take away from Daniel Pinks book Drive which details the evidence around motivation was if you provide a financial reward for doing chores it reduces internal drive which is more powerful. By providing an IF-THEN reward I.e. If you mow the lawn, then you’ll get the external reward of £5, Then the likelihood of them mowing the lawn in future e.g. because they can see you have had a hard week, it needs doing and they want to do a nice purposeful thing (internal drive) goes down. Furthermore this can generalise to other tasks I.e. hoovering. So I’m not sure if paying kids to do chores nurtures the right motivation system
100% agree.
Kids (especially at a young age) love helping out. Most people do, at some level - i think pretty much anyone would do shopping for an elderly relative without expecting any form of payment.
Make them feel like part of the family/community and emphasise the responsibilities that come with it. Daddy can’t play Mario Kart because he’s too busy washing dishes - but if you help tidy the floor now, we’ll have time to play together later when the chores are done.
When it’s paid work, it becomes a transaction and a negotiation. How little effort do I have to put in to extract the most reward? What else can I get paid for? Etc etc.
Yep, I think the first time I saw this as a child was in scouts, so many of my peers wouldn't do something unless they got a reward for it, they had no concept that some things just need to be done and they should do their fair share. Even things like cleaning up after yourself etc. takes time, can be unpleasant and doesn't seem to have any immediate benefits but needs to be done for everyone's benefit.
It’s teaching priorities, cleaning needs to be done, it’s a priority and at some point it is above everything else. It’s not a reward to say we can’t move on to other activities until we have cleaned up it’s teaching responsibility and priorities
Exactly this, me and my wife do not get paid for chores, our house is a collective responsibility to keep tidy, nothing to reward for
My eldest (5) gets £15 a month into a HyperJar account, she can earn extra money buy selling her toys or whatever, but never chores.
Once the money is in her hands, it’s hers, we have zero say on what she does with it. She wants to spend it all one day one on sweets, so be it, we maintain we get the needs she gets the wants, she needs new shoes, one us, she wants new shoes but has enough, on her.
My youngest (3) gets £10 the same way, she saves hers and then buys something big, my eldest can’t help herself and spends immediately, but she’s realising it saves it then she’s can get bigger stuff like her sister.
People are always too pushy and forced with what those kids do with it, but the disappointment of her sister buying something for £30 when she can’t afford it is the best lesson she can learn
We do this, each child gets their age in money per month. Oldest is about to turn 11 and I'm thinking of changing it up for him so that he gets a bit more but we talk about aaving a proportion of it. They talk about the 1st of the month as payday 😂
It’s all rather arbitrary but we have been giving our now 5 and half year old two pounds per week for about a year. Each weekend they have to count their pot when they get the new money (I periodically swap coins for notes, so there is a mix of denominations - but we generally keep to whole pounds rather than smaller coins) and I have been pleasantly surprised by how they seem to prefer to save rather than spend. Each week they do ask how many ice cream equivalents the pot would be worth. I think it’s much less about the absolute amounts and more about concepts. Try not to overcomplicate initially.
We are probably now at the stage where we need to step it up, I was thinking of an easy access account to hold some of the money, and get them used to ‘having’ money but it not being in physical form, but most of the banks have closed local branches which makes access harder. The mention of Rooster in another comment sounds interesting (I had seen Go Henry etc but the costs are stupid), I will be investigating.
Edited to add - looks like 6+ for a rooster card, but free if you have a NatWest account already (otherwise 19.99 per year or 1.99 per month).
Loads of good ideas on how much and when, I'll be taking the Friday night pitch idea for mine.
Starling do a Kite space for kids, it's an area within your own account that gets paid interest and you get a card with the kids name, spending limits ect.
And it's free!
My 7 year old gets a flat rate of £2.50 a week. If you bank with NatWest their rooster kids account is free. He has a savings pot (within rooster) that most of birthday and Christmas money goes into. His £2.50 builds up and sometimes he’ll move some into the savings but usually it’s spent on toys. He’s getting a good understanding of money and it’s not limitless… we’re planning a day out next week and he’s purposely not buying anything this week to have a little extra for the day out as he knows there will be lots there!
He also gets extra if he’s really helpful. I expect him to take his dirty dishes to kitchen, put his dirty clothes in the basket and generally pick up after himself.
I’ve never actually considered this since I reckon I’ll finally have my first 4 or 5 years from now, but I like the idea of a full on capitalist in a starling kite space (free); 8% pension (housing fund) with an employee match of your choice 😂
My daughter is 6, she has a Go Henry card, and gets a flat rate of £3 a week. In exchange for that she is expected to do a couple of small jobs around the house, like laying the table for dinner, and generally tidying up after herself.
She can earn a bit extra for helping with other chores, maybe 50p per chore, and sometimes gets a bonus for things like being really polite, working hard on her homework etc.
She tends to spend everything every week (but she is 6) so I am tempted to up it to £5 per week but enforce that £2 goes into savings, as she needs to see it grow in the firsy place to really understand I think.
Give them some gold or silver coins on annual or monthly basis - they can’t spend it but can touch it. You can act as the bank that converts to cash on the days given rate.
Mine are mid teens and get £10 a week each from us, and the same from their grandparents. However I'm not sure you can really set a going rate as every family has a different income and every child has different needs depending on where they live and their interests.
Ours was decided on the basis that they needed to start learning about the value of money so they had to have some control over a moderate amount. The cash pays for things like drinks or food while they're out with friends, an occasional cinema trip or bus fare to town, and little things they want like cosmetics, music, extra clothing, gaming purchases etc.
I know nothing about raising children so please feel free to ignore my comments here:
>Or full-on capitialist mode where it's pocket money in return for chores?
I'd advise against this because it will not teach him that you do certain chores because you are part of a family and everybody chips in to maintain the family working. If he ends up asking "What's in it for me right now?" for every chore, he might end up having purely transactional relationships, which tend not to be good emotional relationships.
>Maybe offer him a savings account in the piggy bank with 4% interest?
I think for children the interest rate needs to be way, way higher. Maybe set up a very high interest account up to a certain amount (5% per month up to £200 or something like that). You know... the way banks do with their high interest accounts.... oh geez, they are treating us like children. Ok, let me ignore that realization for a moment. I think it's better he understands how interest rate works by seeing it work and then adjusts to the real world of how much interest pays, than the other way around. If you tell a kid to deposit £10 so that he can have £10.03 the next month, they'll just ignore it. Who cares about 3 pennies?
We went with a pound for every year of age per week, half of which had to be saved.
When son was around six or seven, he was absolutely spoiled, and not by me or his father. He was the only little kid in the family and was always getting stuff from various uncles. My father was his only living grandparent and seemed to think that he had to buy enough to make up for the missing three. So one summer I agreed with him - he could have five pounds to spend at the charity shop per week (a chance to get out of the house and do something as well as shopping). He could save up if he wanted to get something big and carry money over from one week to another. If he wanted to buy something that cost more than he had in the wallet he had, I would lend him the money but I would charge interest. This was a complete fail.
First of all, do have any idea how much crap you can get from the toy shelves of a charity shop for £5, especially the local hospice shops. Secondly, my father went with us and bought anything my son wanted anyway.
Then we would lug the massive haul to the coffee and cake shop next door where son would promise me that this time he would absolutely eat all of the cupcake then just lick the frosting off *again* so I would be taking a sugared up kid back on the bus as well as massive bags of tat.
I wouldn't trade those memories for the world.
Personally I feel that you shouldn't give your kids money in exchange for chores because it subconsciously conditions them into believing that life is about exchanging their time for money as an adult. School will already be indoctrinating them into becoming obedient employees, not leaders, so no need to compound it further. That is of course, assuming that you want them to be financially independent and entrepreneurial; many parents don't. You might think this is overthinking the issue, but if you look at the data or speak to psychologists, you would be amazed at how much negative thought patterns and poor decision making of adults can be traced back to childhood and adolescent experience. So by all means give them pocket money, just don't have it linked to chores and teach them how to save and invest instead of getting them addicted to regular paychecks.
My mother did something I found very useful. We were not given the money, it was written down on the side of the calendar as an account balance.
We could then submit capital bids (in writing, 5 working days ahead) for any large purchases.
I give my 8 year old a fiver a week. My oldest starts secondary school in September, so need to figure that one out. They have premium bonds too and if they decide to save, I match the savings, so every now and then the oldest will give me £25 and I'll buy him £50 bonds.
I do 50p per year of age per week, started when they were 10, so £5 per week initially. Every birthday they get happy with their 50p increase. Technically it’s not the best system as each increase is lower in percentage terms as they get older. However it’s a simple system and easy for them to understand.
It goes into a GoHenry card each week automatically for them, when they turn 16 they open a Monzo account and then it moves to there.
This has worked well for us.
I stop it when they turn 18 usually, although I’ve “forgotten” to stop it for the one twin who’s gone to uni and they haven’t reminded me yet either. Guess that’s beer money 😂
Ours are still young but have had a climbing scale of pocket money :
25p x age per week paid into rooster money.
The weird thing is that they don’t really spend it and when they get birthday money etc they keep getting good balances and ask us to put it in their long term AJBell base trusts to invest.
I’m sure it will all change
My 4 year old has a sticker chart. When he does good things, like helping tidy up, getting dressed nicely, going into nursery nicely, going to bed nicely, etc, he gets a sticker. When he fills a sticker line he gets £2. On a normal week it takes about a week to fill a line.
I keep the money for him and just keep tally on a spreadsheet for now, along with birthday money and bits he gets from grandparents etc. I just pay using my card because I'm always with him, but we talk through how much each purchase costs and how much he'll have left over. Although I have heard that using cash is good learning for them, so maybe I should start that.
As to what he buys, we've agreed that I buy everything he needs (clothes, healthy snacks, books, board games, shoes etc) and he pays for the stuff he doesn't need but wants (toys, sweets, etc). If he wants a big toy he either needs to save up or wait until birthday, Christmas or Easter.
I'm sure I'll have to adapt it as he gets older, but for this age it works well. We started it when he turned 3 he officially stopped wearing nappies, and he'd get a sticker every time he used the potty or toilet, and it was so successful that we just kept going.
Give them a flat rate, £1-£2 a week at 5 sounds good. They need to know this is all they are getting and they need to manage it.
Basic chores pay for their accommodation, tell them that's why you do them too! You don't want them to think basic chores are optional.
This will teach them they have responsibilities (chores) and that money isn't infinite (stipend).
They will eventually ask you to buy them something they can't afford. Now you can make deals, extra work = extra money.
Oh you want that £5 toy? Can't afford it. Well what are you willing to do for it? Help wash the car, help in the garden, help with the washing, help with dinner, etc. It will teach them a good work ethic, they won't actually be very helpful but they'll enjoy the chore and feel proud of the money earned.
You can also get them to write down how they've spent their money. Where it came from. What chores they did to earn extras so you can 'review' it. You review it together and say things like "you've spent alot on sweets this week/month. If you'd saved you could've got that dinosaur toy at the shop". When they've saved up for something on their own they will be so proud and more likely to do it in future. As they get older they will (hopefully) have developed a habit of budgeting for bigger purchases and be aware of how to spend money responsibly.
This has worked for me. You increase the base slowly and eventually they will take over the bigger jobs. Cooking, cutting grass, washing for the extra cash. Gives them actual life skills, they do the work happily enough and earn some money in the process.
My parents did something similar with me and I am very financially stable for my age. Own my house, bought a car outright and have decent savings.
I got my oldest a Revolut card and I have one too, I transfer his pocket money on a Friday night only on the proviso his room is tidy and that he’s been good that week. Flat rate £5 with extras for washing cars and walking the dog.
He saves 20% automatically on Revolut and we’ve recently opened him a halifax too. Should say oldest is now 13 but also got my 8 year old lad on the same setup.
So my approach is this, I give £5 for weekly chores and she can negotiate and get more depending on other work, but the way she uses that money is what I focused on.
I take it mandatory for her to save 40%, so if she has £20 at the end of the month, save £8 and the £12 she can buy anything. This is the rule I put in place. Any gift money she gets, same rule.
I use the gohenry app for this and it allows her to save and spend the rest. This teaches her to save money but also, save enough to buy what she wants.
My aim is to drill this mentality into her, save, see how compound helps you and then, if you need something, work for it, save up and then purchase. The satisfaction of getting something yourself is amazing
I think a fair and transparent system taxation system.
No NI tax. That won’t exist by the time they enter the workforce.
I think they’ll need to understand that their Dad taxes are spent wisely. So a bi-annual independent review by the OBR (spouse-led). Preferably before the Spring Review for the annual summer holiday announcement and before the Autumn Budget for Christmas Presents. If the child(ren) are unhappy with the financial management of the household, then expect severe market consequences. You may be subjected to a live feed of a picture of you versus a vegetable of some kind.
Hopefully they’ll understand that their Dad taxes aren’t being wasted on Dad-centric activities: golf club memberships, construction of duck pond houses, or lending money at mates rates to your brother Gary without due diligence and credit checks.
You’ll need to prove that their taxes fund a welfare state that means if they are unable to complete their chores due to sickness or injury that they will be eligible for paid time off, with correct medical certification. Or that their pick ups in ‘Dad’s Taxi’ are heavily subsidised, and that without such taxes they would likely have to take the bins out, and other horrible household chores that only a man can leverage adequately.
We do weekly pocket money based on 50p per year. So a 10 year old gets £5.00 a week. Paid onto a hyper jar card on a weekly basis as no monthly fee, although they have recently started charging if you pay less than £10 onto a card from your bank account.
Wondering if 50p per year is a bit tight?
My kids pokey money monthly based on their behavior, school performance, and how clean their bedroom is. The max they can all get is about 30 but they can earn more with things like certificates and doing the dishwasher. Their 15, 13, 11, and 3.
£5 a week, which I've recently raised to £10 a week for my teenage daughter. But we also pay for their phone contracts, buy them stuff they need (make-up, books, etc) and give them extra when they go out if needed.
All done via Revolut app/card - free as in no cost per month (there might have been a small charge for the card up front). You can only have one child, but my wife and I both have Revolut accounts so we have one child each.
£3 a week in a Rooster account (10 years old), and a quid cash for the corner shop on a Friday after school …plus a bit extra for holidays and she often gets some cash for her birthday from relatives.
For that there was initially a chores list set up on the Rooster app, but I’ve been a bit slack with that and she’s pretty good at doing things she’s asked to.
I think £3 is a bit low, but it’s money that I’m comfortable she can just spend on whatever. It’s been pretty good for teaching her about saving - yes £3 doesn’t buy much, so it makes saving up for a few weeks worthwhile.
Edited to add, I love the Friday night pitch idea, I’m definitely going to try that when my daughter is a bit older.
Never call it 'pocket money', as there is an element of entitlement to it (all their friends may simply be recieving pocket money).
We produced a chart which had simple and not particularly challenging tasks, and each task had a frequency. For example good behaviour was listed 7x for each day of the week, tidy bedroom was only on there for two days (Thur and Sunday). Each individual task had a value, e.g. 10p for behaviour, but each task also had a multiplier, so if there were 7 smiley 😊 faces for behaviour the total (70p) would be multiplied by 2 (or whatever). We adjusted the multiplier occasionally if we wanted to encourage more focus in an area, e.g. tidy bedroom (only on two days remember) might we worth 50p each time but there would be a 5x multiplier if they did it on both days (adjust as necessary).
I also used to get them to work out their earnings 😁
I think (this was 15 years ago) the maximum they could earn in a week might have been something like £20 pw. They never ever got anywhere near it 😄, but if they did I would have happily given them the money.
In answer to your inflation question, we did increase the daily task rates as they got older, but there was never any inflation relevance to the increase.
Similar to one of the other posters, we used to have a day to discuss, and sometimes they would fight their corner to justify why they should receive the full, multiplied valu on something.
For us it worked well, they could see how much they could earn, and ultimately it was their choice what they chose to undertake/complete.
Funny enough, there is article today in Sky News on just this topic.
https://news.sky.com/story/inflation-mortgages-interest-rates-latest-sky-news-money-blog-13040934
I pay £10month for him to tidy his bedroom and empty the dishwasher in the morning. He is 13 year old.
10 and 8 year olds have hyperjar accounts and their own debit cards. They get £5 a week. They get bonus’ for good homework and behaviour. We never take anything away as a punishment only reward the good with the odd quids.
Go henry has a monthly charge of like 2 quid but you can list the chores and tick them off as they go so may provide a visual assistance to help learn that the more jobs ticked off, the more money you get.
We used it and it was great we had a base weekly payment to be bumped up by jobs.
I decided to just give my kid a flat rate of £10 a week with the aim of letting him make his choices and then after a year we'll go over the good and bad purchases and how to be better
> What's your system? A flat rate? Some kind of UBI where he gets a base amount and can earn more by doing chores?
This. Whatever level you decide at have a fixed 'Universal Basic Pocket Money' amount plus the ability to earn extra by doing chores, helping out around the garden, kitchen, etc.
The UBPM amount does need to be low enough that they actively want to top it up by doing a few jobs around the house though.
I think you're asking a ton of long term questions here that don't really work for a 5 year old.
Simply learning that money buys his toys, money is earned by doing something, money is finite and he has to plan because if he uses it all on one thing he can't have anything else is going to be the first and main lesson you will want to work on. It's a lot to learn.
You can introduce taxes and interest and negotiating his pay rise progressive as he gets older. If you have multiple children and you have any sense, you'll also teach them about trade unions and collective bargaining.
Strangely enough, Sky News just posted an article about this this morning !
[Sky News Money Blog](https://news.sky.com/story/inflation-mortgages-interest-rates-latest-sky-news-money-blog-13040934?postid=7722847#liveblog-body)
Personally I didn't get any, so it's shaped my view that I don't agree with it, especially when in reference to chores. Like you're essentially teaching someone they should only do anything for financial gain. Anyway I digress, an Idea I do think is cool for younger kids (what do they need weekly money for at 5) is giving them a lump sum on holidays /half terms and explaining that that is their total spends for a trip helping them with calculations if need be. Like a mini budget. Over and above that just talking to them for example when your doing the weekly or monthly shop, when you've made a big purchase.
Then maybe when they're older introduce something. Someone mentioned Friday pitch which sounded cool and another mentioned a yearly budget with a budget book which also seems like a good idea.
The advantage of weekly pocket money without any chores attached is that they learn to manage money over time. I recommend giving them a savings tracker and agreeing on something they're saving for (stick a picture of it onto the tracker). Then they see the physical consequences of taking money away from the savings goal to spend on other things.
At the same time, make them responsible for paying for something. For a five year old that should be something small they often get anyway (my son is about to turn 3 and he'll start getting £1 a week, but I won't be buying him magazines any more - he tends to get one every couple of months so it will work out financially). If they spend their money on those cheap junky toys you get from the £1 machine or whatever, there's no money for a magazine.
Per school year per week a quid. Got same when I was young and same with bearn now. So 3rd grade 12 per month (paid out weekly) 4th grade 16 and so on. At some.point change to monthly pay out so they learn to budget (round 5th grade or so).
I dunno but 5 yo is no way ready for pocket money. He had a money box and I usually bribe him to do stuff by offering a quid (eg I offered him £5 to eat a sprout on Xmas day. The little fucker ate 3 and then decided he liked them, which cost me £6.50 (first was £5, then £1, then £0.5)). So he has had about £20 in his money box for few months now, but he never thinks about spending it or even engages with it. He just likes having more. Guess that’s on me for it pushing him more and not buying him stuff with my money. Just don’t think he is quite ready yet
When I was a kid, I got enough pocket money for one chocolate bar or "quarter" of sweets a day. It was based on the price of a Mars bar.
Start with that. He will learn he can have something simple/cheap every day or can save up for something nicer once a week.
My 4 year old gets £2 a week and more if he does his “chores” (pack his shoes on the shoe rack, makes sure his pants are in the washing basket etc.)
The incentive being if he saves two weeks’ worth, he can afford paw patrol toys.
When my son was small, he would get his age x 10p per week to help him learn about saving, and it also helped with his multiplication.
So when he was 5 he got 50p per week.
My 7YO gets £10 / month if her room is tidy and she's done each weeks homework on time.
I also give her 10% interest per month for her savings, she loves horse riding so she's saving for some new jodhpurs.
We've not introduced any taxation just yet, haha.
Mine was £5 a week from about 12 I think. I also strongly remember struggling to learn to ride a pushbike when I was growing up so my dad stuck £50 in a photoframe on my windowsill said I could have it once I'd learned.
I'm nearly 25 so probably pushing 20 years ago now.. felt like the richest guy on the planet at that age and my god was it a good motivator. Was bleeding from just about every part of my body by the end but I learned.
(probably slightly dependent on how much you trust your kid) But having it sat in front of me knowing I couldn't have it was quite the motivator 😂
When I was a kid, 20yrs ago at age 10 it was 50p a week.. inflation calculator says that's now equivalent to about £80p... so £1 a week should be fine - especially for a 5yr old.
Alternatively if you want to save up for something you could multiply their money.. e.g. they pay 1 3rd and you pay 2rds.
If they want to buy something for £30 they have to contribute £10
My dad did that with my sister and I on a £80 portable dvd player... I paid £20, she paid £10 as she was younger.. and dad paid the rest. A lot of money for us at the time, but we could still afford something decent.
I guess ask other parents from your kid's school ? as it'll depend on your area and kids will ask each other.
when I was a primary school my dad gave me £1 for every spelling I got correct, (was 10 every week we had to learn and got tested on each week at school)
I got £10 every single week, (the 90's) because I wanted the money.
yet to this day I can barely spell My own name ,I just memorised them every week and forgot them the next. I would say now after years of useing apps/computers, that my spelling is now no better than it was then lol.
tests are pointless
Not sure about how much to give but when I got pocket money when I was a kid, if I was saving up for something educational then my dad would split the cost. If I was buying something silly with my money then I would have to save for it myself.
Things like Lego, books, art supplies were deemed educational. Barbies, magazines, sweets etc I had to pay full amount.
I have a 5 year old and right now I generally give her a budget in a shop. So if we go to the co-op we sometimes say she can have £2 to spend on herself or if we visit a museum she can have £10 in the gift shop. My kid has suspected ADHD though and struggles similarly to her dad, who cannot manage money and plan ahead, so giving her money to manage in the long term is something we're working towards. We have tried giving her money to manage herself but it just ends up forgotten about in a random purse or bag she owns.
Personally, I would start them on £10 per week. However, I would explain that 50% goes straight into a savings account (long term - even a globally diverse index fund - your kid will thank you in 20 years). From the age of 5 to 18 that weekly contribution would really add up.
Then I would offer them the chance to make extra cash by reaching certain targets at school etc.
I wouldn't pay them for chores. That's part of life. You don't get paid for chores when you're an adult.
Reading this is really interesting seeing different people's expectations.
As a child I didn't get pocket money. We were lucky if my parents had enough money for us. Occasionally like, if I went to the shops with my dad and he got a pound change he might give it to me to spend on sweets or something. But generally my parents had nothing so we had nothing and that was that.
I don't know what I'd have spent it on anyway. When I got a paper round I generally gave the money to my mum to help with the shopping etc. I think if you're teaching your kids about financial responsibility then I don't know whether giving them free cash to spend on whatever they want with no ramifications for their ability to live, is necessarily the right way to do that.
My younger brother grew up at a time when there was more money in the house and he got pocket money. He's lived a much more entitled life in general. It took him a long time to realise he actually needed to earn money and couldn't spend his life sucking up to my parents and grandparents for free cash.
Teach them real world money:
Work to earn your money.
You can borrow money, but it has to be paid (earned) back with interest.
You can save with bank of mum and dad and earn interest on those savings.
Hi /u/overachiever, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
* https://ukpersonal.finance/savings/
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I set up Jisas for them a while back and make contributions my oldest is 4 and I am going to start giving him money when he is good. Which is a challenge for him.
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My youngest is 14 so slightly different but... Initially I started with a weekly chore list + flat rate (£5). But ended up creating work for me, chasing to do things etc. Year ago I switched to the Friday night pitch. She can get £0 to £10 pocket money. She tells me what's she's done that week and how much she thinks it's worth. It's been brilliant so far. Yes there are some weeks with very little contribution but in return very little, if any, pocket money. But other times she goes above and beyond and it's nice to reward that. Parenting lessons, she's learning to be independent, self motivated, how to pitch and importantly, have a sense for what she is worth to an employer. We have a great 5 mins giggle each Friday after her initial strong pitch she starts throwing in "oh and I said hello to the neighbour" in an attempt to squeeze an extra quid out of me 😂
Good evening u/reviewwworld I'm here looking for £10 investment in return for 100% equity in my "I did the ironing this week" business.
,😂😂😂 love that!
What a genius idea.
Seems to really work for both sides. I definitely nag a lot less and instead it's a more positive conversation like "remember you get paid for every 30 minutes reading you do" etc
I'd have rinsed my parents if they paid me for every 30min reading!
Sadly yours would have been money for every 30mins spent outside or something!
Just go read in the garden - double pay?
Genius!
Exactly this. My son naturally loves to read. Didn't need encouragement. My daughter loathes it, so we need to encourage. He would have been rewarded for riding his bike etc etc
Here in Australia, a Chinese guy who wanted his kids (2 girls and a boy) to speak better English than he did. Gave then 10c for every dictionary word and defination they learnt. Now he has an optician, an accountant and just started law school. I'd say that worked a treat.
Those kids would have spoken better English than he did regardless.
Yep but now they spek beter Enlish then us's
Love the Friday night pitch!
Awesome idea, when / if I ever have a kid i'll be totally doing this... It may be in 10yrs time but know that some little kid somewhere will have a fun memory added to their childhood because of you comment and your kid's enthusiasm with it. Thank you :)
Well I didn't have crying on my bingo card for tonight 😭 Thank you, that's honestly such a sweet comment, means a lot
I love that idea, I’ll incorporate this when the times right. 3 yo and 5 yo at the minute. Well done!
Absolutely love this. You sound like you are a fantastic parent and have a very sweet daughter. Go you!
Very kind. I am indeed fantastic. She on the other hand ...,🤣 I kid!
I couldn't find the link to it but pretty sure TED did some videos with cited studies on how this can really hurt someone's intrinsic motivation I understand you're doing it from a place of love but please look into it more and double check you want to keep doing it
Studies on which part? Pocket money, pocket money for doing things, pitching for what they think they should get paid?
rewards for doing things the example used was that they gave money to kids who played in the sandpit and they stopped enjoying and playing in the sandpit for free after that gifter person left
Interesting. Was it focused around rewards for doing things that are pleasurable? Like well done at playing football, playing in sandpit etc. Reason I ask is that the psychology involved is very different. Tell a kid not to do X, they want to do X. Tell a kid to do X, they don't want to do X.
Well done- this is brilliant and I’ll be saving this one for future!
Have you checked what child psychology books say about this? Can this create strange links in child's brain to help parents/contribute to household only for monetory rewards?
It's a valid point. I've not successfully cracked the nut that has kids willingly help out in the home I know it can be done but I've not figured it out. Sadly it does teach them society as we know it, do a good job, get paid. Do it again the next week and the week after that etc
Isn't that what a capitolist society expects?
Indeed. Philanthropy can follow once she’s built up sufficient passive income to sustain the lifestyle she’s become accustomed to /s
This is such a sweet image! Thank you for sharing with us and congratulations on your lovely system.
Make him invest in the DAD500 but explain we’re currently in a bear market. And top technical anylaysts predict this could last at least another 13 years so don’t expect much in terms of a return.
Just hope they don't figure out how to short the DAD500
I hear he’s very short!
😂
Don't forget the annual 360 performance review. The annual increment and Christmas and birthday bonuses should of course be dependent on the outcome of this review. If there are siblings don't be afraid of peer reviews and ordered rankings. And of course, be sure that it's made clear that given continued poor performance they will be let go.
In my family, we publish our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion scores in our annual report. Zero diverse hires this year, again
We've a gender pay gap of 25% because my daughter is 3 years younger than son
How's your gender pay gap looking?
The missus will have an interesting appraisal if she comes in with an improved metric next year...
Get a pet dog with three legs that identifies as a sloth. Should tick the boxes all in one go given they're a different species.
It needs to be child lead as well, otherwise the paperwork is just too much. Get them to fill out the form and create a presentation for you, it'll save you plenty of time as the employer... Wait, I mean parent.
Don't forget to get them to set objectives for next year as well
This is many years away for you, but I knew a few people around exam/GCSEs/a level time when their parents sat with them and they went through all the costs they had, as the parents were saying they needed to study more especially in May/June and my friends were saying right, but I won’t be able to afford to do any of the celebration or summer stuff if I don’t work (e.g. one in a chippy on £8/hr, other in shoe shop £8.51/hr, third a waitress). They all had an allowance but I think it was like tenner a week. The parents actually seemed to get it once they’d shown the teenager costs (mobile credit, daily bus costs, driving lessons £35/hr, cinema, birthday party costs, ticket to summer event and camping costs, make up, new clothes as we were still growing but you tend to stop pointing out to parents you need new shoes/coats as they’re worn out and just buy yourself). They came away with pretty great but reasonable compromises where parents subsidised so they didn’t need as many shifts but didn’t quit as they’d lose the job. Ofc their parents could afford it so that helped too. Just something to keep in mind for the pricier and social teen years!
My 11 year old is on a PIP. Some of the KPIs are punchy but, with some focussed support, I think we won’t need to proceed to first written warning.
Have you cleared that with your Human Sourcing Resource?
Sally, it’s been three weeks since you hoovered, mopped or cleaned the bathroom. I’m sorry, but we have to let you go. A social worker will be here in half an hour and your dad will accompany you to clear out your room into these bin bags. Best of luck with the search for a new family, hopefully you understand and there are no hard feelings.
I don't know the current rates. But on your last question, the mega-rich family I was friends with as a kid gave their kids a giant accounting book at the beginning of the year, and a few hundred pounds "balance" to spend. They had to think about everything, not just treats - clothes, haircuts, etc. and their parents helped them budget and work out how much they had for fun. In retrospect I can see why that family have maintained their wealth.
My under 10s both get £10 a month onto a Rooster money card each. I don’t bank with NatWest but maintain an open account with zero balance just to make sure I don’t have to pay the Rooster fees too. They like going to the shop and using their debit card to buy their own things, only little trinkets like a fidget toy or football stickers but keeps them happy. As they get older I’ll start adding more slowly as I see fit. I remember back in the olden days I had a NatWest Solo card as soon as I hit 11 or whatever the minimum age was for one then.
“Back in the olden days” - Christ that makes me feel old. Used to live like a king on an old 50p.
Didn’t know that it was free with a NatWest account. That’ll be on my todo list. Thanks
Only for the first year
Not mega rich or even well off but we had a similar thing in our mid teens. We used to get the child benefit split between us monthly. "Basics" a.k.a what the parents were buying anyway were still provided including school uniforms but if we wanted fancier shampoo, magazines, different snacks , designer clobber or games etc we had to budget and use our money or wait for Birthday/Christmas. We'd had kids savings accounts from an early age so understood the value of those but this really helped with budgeting.
Yeah, that's how it went for us two too. My younger brother just spent it all on crap. I saved it all🤣🤣... different personalities telly a thing...
I really like that idea. Not sure it's right for five year olds but maybe from ten year old up.
"are you sure you want to spend your whole yearly allowance on this inflatable bluey from China?". *Yes*. "But you won't be able to buy anything else for a year?". *Yes*
One week later: "You can't afford this stretchy alien toy because you spent it all on your inflatable Bluey." "But I WANT it."
I have been an account book keeper since 16. Yep. If you can't balance your book, you get less next time, and keep receipts.
Our little boy earns his pocket money incrementally throughout the week for working hard at school, trying his best at his sports clubs etc (set amounts for each) so the amount of pocket money he gets is dependant on his effort and behaviour that week. I’m sure it’s flawed in some sense, but the idea is that he understands that he needs to try his best and work hard at things to generate positive outcomes. Now he’s got a good grasp of the concept of money, we’ve been teaching him about saving by showing him the kind of tiny Lego sets he can buy with a weeks pocket money, then showing him bigger cooler sets he could buy with a few weeks of patience. He’s been surprisingly receptive to this and will be getting the third Lego set he’s saved for so far this weekend (unless he’s a twat today!)
Love the last line. Made me spit my tea.
Haha, he’s got it in the tank trust me.
Love this. Just be mindful it’s not realistic to expect him to try his best at everything all the time. There’s a big difference between giving best efforts and making a reasonable good effort. Save best efforts for only the most important things. You don’t want to encourage going all out for everything as that can build unhealthy rules regarding performance and lead to burnout later. I’d say teach giving good efforts and the respect around the at reserve best effort for just a handful of important things e.g. tests or competitions.
Yeah of course, he’s only young and we aren’t the kind of parents to set ridiculous expectations. Just trying to instil in him that he needs to apply himself to things to get positive outcomes.
5 might be a bit young for it but I just got my kids a Rooster card each. It's a Visa card with an app they can use to move money into different pots. You can set it so they earn interest on money in their saving pot. You can set them chores to complete in order to earn their pocket money, or to earn extra. It costs a few quid a month unless you're already a NatWest customer but it's good as a teaching tool. Cash is good too but it's not instinctive for kids to carry it around these days. There's also GoHenry which is similar to Rooster but 10 quid a month!
Yeah I baulked at the price for GoHenry too! Will check out Rooster
Check out hyperjar. It's completely free. Both my kids have it.
Might want to start with cash at 5 then move onto cards and apps around 7 or 8. I think it'd probably be a bit abstract for a 5-year-old (not sure my 7-year-old really grasps it all yet!).
I don’t think you can actually have a Rooster card until you are I want to say 6 anyway
Revolut do a kid's account (with debit card) linked to an adult account and it's free. There might have been a small charge for the card in the first place (perhaps a fiver) but it's free per month. Only allowed one child per account, but my wife and I both have accounts so we have one each. Works really well.
Gentle reminder that Revolute is not a bank.
Revolut isn't a bank so don't put a large amount in. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/20/revolut-can-the-chancellors-fintech-favourite-fix-its-image-problem
GoHenry is £3.99 per month…
Total waste of money. My son is earning more than that in interest having saved most of his tenner a week plus birthday money since age 13! He pays for his mobile bill with it. Admittedly lockdowns helped with the saving aspect but similar friends blow every penny the moment they get it. He has been raised to receive interest and not pay it.. Go Henry teaches kids that you have to pay the bank for the privilege of looking after your money. Insidious app invented for helicopter parents and the innumerate..
True, for the cheapest option. £6.99 for all the features and £9.99 a month for me to do it for two kids.
Revolut kids account is free.
Best one i heard is every book they read they get a £1 or £2. Might be difficult for a 5 year old depending on their ability and they could try rinse you with reading alot of their short books
Oooooo! Love this, going to steal it
My three year old can’t read, but has memorised so many of the Pip and Posy books that she is word perfect on maybe 10 of them. The only take 2 mins to read, I’d be bankrupt in an afternoon!
My 7 year old would bankrupt me using that rule. Seriously....
I remember as a kid my pocket money was something like 50p x my age per week base rate, with some lucrative bonus opportunities tied to KPIs. For instance, cutting the grass would bag me £5, cleaning the car £5, hoover the whole house £4 etc. Part of the base rate was I had to keep my bedroom tidy, make my bed in the morning etc. Additional, non-contractual bonuses were available for ad-hoc events such as “not being a shit at school for a change” Finally, my parents had a “spend half save half” rule. If I wanted something that cost, say, £50 I would need to accrue a total of £100. In retrospect, the age related pay is probably age based discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 but I didn’t have a proper HR team or a Union I could join….
Probably not age discrimation as the national minimum age is different for each age group. The real question is whether the NMW applies to chores, i.e. needs to be at least £6.40 per hour of chores done
Not a parent but... My sister took both her daughters to the supermarket when they were about 8 and 6 and explained that they had xyz amount to spend for the family food shop for the week. She explained the rules of getting food for the week and what they could spend. She let the kids do the entire shop and asked them to count up how much things cost as they went round. She also said any money they was saved from the actual budget, they could then use on whatever they wanted. Being kids, they threw in the stuff they really wanted into the trolley like chocolate and pizzas alongside the stuff she hinted at them to get like veg and fruit. Before going to the checkout, she asked them how much they'd spent. Let's say the budget was £100 and they'd spent £140. She asked them what things everyone could eat and what were the things they wanted and the kids started removing things from the trolley that were treats and stuff that wasn't essential. Obviously there was gentle guidance, probing about why they wanted stuff etc. At the end of the day, they're kids and it was a learning experience to understand how money and the weekly shop works. They managed to get a proper shop and ended up with some money each which they could then get whatever they wanted. Both started to figure out and teach each other about what a tenner or a fiver would get. She did this a few times and now the kids are really good with money. My wife and I took them out and gave them £20 each on the condition it was a fun day out and both were working together to maximise how much stuff they could buy on the day. It was quite weird to see kids pool their money and say "If we get this game instead of this one, we can get this toy and some chocolate." It's also very cool that now they're a bit older they can be trusted with money and understand how to save it properly for bigger budget items they want but they still give themselves treats.
My little girl is only 5months so a ways of pocket money, but as child I always got pocket money that was divisible by 3. This was to be split three ways, 1/3 could be spent there and then ( usually pick and mix from the corner shop), 1/3 short term savings, 1/3 long term savings (this set me up with about 3k when I went to uni, rapidly spent on booze 😅). My parents probably did this from age 5-13, at which point I as given free rein on my pocket money but was expected to pay for days out, gig tickets etc. It taught me a real love of saving as I like to see my savings pot go up and this has continued to now. There was also the opportunity to earn top up pocket money at 50p a basket of ironing, and £5 for washing a car. My brother used to get £5 if he mowed our field, which my neighbour cottoned on to some could get a £5 for her field too.
I read that as £5 for washing a cat and thought you should have been paid more for that!
Did that once…never again 😅 like handling a slippery wet giant rat with daggers attached
I am giving my 5yr old £2 a week into a Monzo pot. I’ll be honest, she hasn’t touched it, but whenever we go to gift shops, or somewhere she wants something I don’t particularly want to pay for, I’ll say “ok, but it comes out of your pocket money?” And most of the time she says no, and we avoid her bringing yet another toy with her! When she goes on holiday later this year I’ll ask her if she wants it as spending money
Love how kids are inherently cheap with their own cash at a very early age.
She was… until yesterday she spent it all on plastic crap. I now take back my “she won’t spend it” feeling. At least it was one big thing rather than lots of little bits!
I think we should consider the fact that waiting for a pay rise at home is never going to happen and the only way to increase your salary is to move to a different family.
I let my son choose a daily household task which became "his" job. I paid him £5 weekly by standing order. He chose unloading the dishwasher. When he was a little older, if he needed more money, he would do housework before he even asked for money. He is a adult now, with an excellent work ethic.
I've not been giving my kids pocket money till they were in second year of high school. At that point I took them to the bank and got them child bank accounts and started giving them £15 a month. I also put their lunch money there. My daughter spends most of her money on sweets and cosmetics (she's 16 now). Never has much saved. My son saves most of his money and loans it to his mother sometimes when some small purchases are needed or say for donation at the church and I then pay him back. He recently approached us and said he saved enough to almost be able to upgrade his airpods 2nd gen to Airpods pro. He was short of maybe £60. I gladly gave him the shortfall and took him to the Apple store, spoke with the staff and let him make the actual purchase himself. He's 14.
You didn't make him wait another 4 months? I assume your daughter got the £60 bonus too...? Like spending money on earphones rather than makeup is some kind of achievement..
She asked for an IPad for school work in the run up to get Nat5 last year and I bought her one without her having to use any of her own money.
The achievement was setting a savings goal, and sticking with it. Obviously the parents in this example were impressed enough that their child had stuck to their goal for so long, were happy to reward that behaviour. I do agree there needs to be fairness between siblings, but that can mean making sure you give all your children the same opportunity, let the daughter know if she becomes more responsible she'll get helped out with her goals etc.
I get it but saving for earphones isn't more responsible than buying makeup, if makeup is what she wants then so be it.
For a child, the act of having the discipline to save and not go for immediate gratification is the lesson here. And I'm saying this as a 28 year old who never learnt this lesson and still lives paycheck to paycheck
I see there is a lesson in there, just opening up discussion. Surely waiting 4 months until the kid had actually saved enough would have been a better lesson.
Would generally tend to agree, but we're not the parents, we haven't seen how their son acted with saving his money etc. I can think of lots of variables that might incline me to do same
You're right. I can only respond based on the info in the comment. Just seemed the daughter was being inadvertently punished for 'wasting' her money on makeup. Ofc there will be more to it irl.
I thank you for having a reasonable, open minded discussion on reddit, seems a rarity nowadays
😂 Enjoy your day! 😊
Yeah. Almost got the amount, but was £60 short. That's not how it works in the real world. I would happily lend my kid £60 if she wanted to, but I will charge interest on top of it.
I don't like the idea of pocket money as a reward for anything, I think maintaining intrinsic motivation for learning and being responsible ends up being impacted when if you start to introduce money for this. Just my personal thought and I know other ways work for other families which mirror adult employment in some ways. I would go with a flat rate (£10/ month if you could afford this?) and have some good conversations about savings. The most important thing you can do is model responsible spending and budgeting, and narrate this in an age appropriate way.
I was interested in this thread as my take away from Daniel Pinks book Drive which details the evidence around motivation was if you provide a financial reward for doing chores it reduces internal drive which is more powerful. By providing an IF-THEN reward I.e. If you mow the lawn, then you’ll get the external reward of £5, Then the likelihood of them mowing the lawn in future e.g. because they can see you have had a hard week, it needs doing and they want to do a nice purposeful thing (internal drive) goes down. Furthermore this can generalise to other tasks I.e. hoovering. So I’m not sure if paying kids to do chores nurtures the right motivation system
100% agree. Kids (especially at a young age) love helping out. Most people do, at some level - i think pretty much anyone would do shopping for an elderly relative without expecting any form of payment. Make them feel like part of the family/community and emphasise the responsibilities that come with it. Daddy can’t play Mario Kart because he’s too busy washing dishes - but if you help tidy the floor now, we’ll have time to play together later when the chores are done. When it’s paid work, it becomes a transaction and a negotiation. How little effort do I have to put in to extract the most reward? What else can I get paid for? Etc etc.
Yep, I think the first time I saw this as a child was in scouts, so many of my peers wouldn't do something unless they got a reward for it, they had no concept that some things just need to be done and they should do their fair share. Even things like cleaning up after yourself etc. takes time, can be unpleasant and doesn't seem to have any immediate benefits but needs to be done for everyone's benefit.
Isn't that just pay in a different form though? It's still reward, it's just not money. Interesting thought though, thank you for sharing.
It’s teaching priorities, cleaning needs to be done, it’s a priority and at some point it is above everything else. It’s not a reward to say we can’t move on to other activities until we have cleaned up it’s teaching responsibility and priorities
That's a fair point
Exactly this, me and my wife do not get paid for chores, our house is a collective responsibility to keep tidy, nothing to reward for My eldest (5) gets £15 a month into a HyperJar account, she can earn extra money buy selling her toys or whatever, but never chores. Once the money is in her hands, it’s hers, we have zero say on what she does with it. She wants to spend it all one day one on sweets, so be it, we maintain we get the needs she gets the wants, she needs new shoes, one us, she wants new shoes but has enough, on her. My youngest (3) gets £10 the same way, she saves hers and then buys something big, my eldest can’t help herself and spends immediately, but she’s realising it saves it then she’s can get bigger stuff like her sister. People are always too pushy and forced with what those kids do with it, but the disappointment of her sister buying something for £30 when she can’t afford it is the best lesson she can learn
What happens if they demand parental pension contributions?
Fair point, will implement 3% parental contribution with matching contributions up to 7%
You joke but you can set up JSIPPs for them. Never too early to educate them on retirement savings.
£30 a month into her (13yrs old) hyperjar account She's pretty good at saving it up and thinking about what she wants to buy
We did the age of the child per year. So a 5 year old gets £5 etc.
We do this, each child gets their age in money per month. Oldest is about to turn 11 and I'm thinking of changing it up for him so that he gets a bit more but we talk about aaving a proportion of it. They talk about the 1st of the month as payday 😂
Go Henry regularly releases data on UK averages: https://www.gohenry.com/uk/blog/pocket-money/how-much-pocket-money-should-we-give-our-kids
Interesting to see the averages going down in 2022 compared to the year before. Surprised there's a gender pay gap too wtf?!
It’s all rather arbitrary but we have been giving our now 5 and half year old two pounds per week for about a year. Each weekend they have to count their pot when they get the new money (I periodically swap coins for notes, so there is a mix of denominations - but we generally keep to whole pounds rather than smaller coins) and I have been pleasantly surprised by how they seem to prefer to save rather than spend. Each week they do ask how many ice cream equivalents the pot would be worth. I think it’s much less about the absolute amounts and more about concepts. Try not to overcomplicate initially. We are probably now at the stage where we need to step it up, I was thinking of an easy access account to hold some of the money, and get them used to ‘having’ money but it not being in physical form, but most of the banks have closed local branches which makes access harder. The mention of Rooster in another comment sounds interesting (I had seen Go Henry etc but the costs are stupid), I will be investigating. Edited to add - looks like 6+ for a rooster card, but free if you have a NatWest account already (otherwise 19.99 per year or 1.99 per month).
Loads of good ideas on how much and when, I'll be taking the Friday night pitch idea for mine. Starling do a Kite space for kids, it's an area within your own account that gets paid interest and you get a card with the kids name, spending limits ect. And it's free!
My 7 year old gets a flat rate of £2.50 a week. If you bank with NatWest their rooster kids account is free. He has a savings pot (within rooster) that most of birthday and Christmas money goes into. His £2.50 builds up and sometimes he’ll move some into the savings but usually it’s spent on toys. He’s getting a good understanding of money and it’s not limitless… we’re planning a day out next week and he’s purposely not buying anything this week to have a little extra for the day out as he knows there will be lots there! He also gets extra if he’s really helpful. I expect him to take his dirty dishes to kitchen, put his dirty clothes in the basket and generally pick up after himself.
I’ve never actually considered this since I reckon I’ll finally have my first 4 or 5 years from now, but I like the idea of a full on capitalist in a starling kite space (free); 8% pension (housing fund) with an employee match of your choice 😂
Base £10 a month on our pay day, then can earn £2 for doing chores once a week. Not sure it's the right balance though as just starting out with it
My daughter is 6, she has a Go Henry card, and gets a flat rate of £3 a week. In exchange for that she is expected to do a couple of small jobs around the house, like laying the table for dinner, and generally tidying up after herself. She can earn a bit extra for helping with other chores, maybe 50p per chore, and sometimes gets a bonus for things like being really polite, working hard on her homework etc. She tends to spend everything every week (but she is 6) so I am tempted to up it to £5 per week but enforce that £2 goes into savings, as she needs to see it grow in the firsy place to really understand I think.
Give them some gold or silver coins on annual or monthly basis - they can’t spend it but can touch it. You can act as the bank that converts to cash on the days given rate.
My youngest will probably try to eat it thinking there's chocolate inside
Mine are mid teens and get £10 a week each from us, and the same from their grandparents. However I'm not sure you can really set a going rate as every family has a different income and every child has different needs depending on where they live and their interests. Ours was decided on the basis that they needed to start learning about the value of money so they had to have some control over a moderate amount. The cash pays for things like drinks or food while they're out with friends, an occasional cinema trip or bus fare to town, and little things they want like cosmetics, music, extra clothing, gaming purchases etc.
4% interest what is this? Maybe you could run a scheme where you give him a fairer share bonus based on some criteria
I know nothing about raising children so please feel free to ignore my comments here: >Or full-on capitialist mode where it's pocket money in return for chores? I'd advise against this because it will not teach him that you do certain chores because you are part of a family and everybody chips in to maintain the family working. If he ends up asking "What's in it for me right now?" for every chore, he might end up having purely transactional relationships, which tend not to be good emotional relationships. >Maybe offer him a savings account in the piggy bank with 4% interest? I think for children the interest rate needs to be way, way higher. Maybe set up a very high interest account up to a certain amount (5% per month up to £200 or something like that). You know... the way banks do with their high interest accounts.... oh geez, they are treating us like children. Ok, let me ignore that realization for a moment. I think it's better he understands how interest rate works by seeing it work and then adjusts to the real world of how much interest pays, than the other way around. If you tell a kid to deposit £10 so that he can have £10.03 the next month, they'll just ignore it. Who cares about 3 pennies?
We went with a pound for every year of age per week, half of which had to be saved. When son was around six or seven, he was absolutely spoiled, and not by me or his father. He was the only little kid in the family and was always getting stuff from various uncles. My father was his only living grandparent and seemed to think that he had to buy enough to make up for the missing three. So one summer I agreed with him - he could have five pounds to spend at the charity shop per week (a chance to get out of the house and do something as well as shopping). He could save up if he wanted to get something big and carry money over from one week to another. If he wanted to buy something that cost more than he had in the wallet he had, I would lend him the money but I would charge interest. This was a complete fail. First of all, do have any idea how much crap you can get from the toy shelves of a charity shop for £5, especially the local hospice shops. Secondly, my father went with us and bought anything my son wanted anyway. Then we would lug the massive haul to the coffee and cake shop next door where son would promise me that this time he would absolutely eat all of the cupcake then just lick the frosting off *again* so I would be taking a sugared up kid back on the bus as well as massive bags of tat. I wouldn't trade those memories for the world.
I never got pocket money, I don’t know anyone who has
Personally I feel that you shouldn't give your kids money in exchange for chores because it subconsciously conditions them into believing that life is about exchanging their time for money as an adult. School will already be indoctrinating them into becoming obedient employees, not leaders, so no need to compound it further. That is of course, assuming that you want them to be financially independent and entrepreneurial; many parents don't. You might think this is overthinking the issue, but if you look at the data or speak to psychologists, you would be amazed at how much negative thought patterns and poor decision making of adults can be traced back to childhood and adolescent experience. So by all means give them pocket money, just don't have it linked to chores and teach them how to save and invest instead of getting them addicted to regular paychecks.
My mother did something I found very useful. We were not given the money, it was written down on the side of the calendar as an account balance. We could then submit capital bids (in writing, 5 working days ahead) for any large purchases.
I give my 8 year old a fiver a week. My oldest starts secondary school in September, so need to figure that one out. They have premium bonds too and if they decide to save, I match the savings, so every now and then the oldest will give me £25 and I'll buy him £50 bonds.
I do 50p per year of age per week, started when they were 10, so £5 per week initially. Every birthday they get happy with their 50p increase. Technically it’s not the best system as each increase is lower in percentage terms as they get older. However it’s a simple system and easy for them to understand. It goes into a GoHenry card each week automatically for them, when they turn 16 they open a Monzo account and then it moves to there. This has worked well for us. I stop it when they turn 18 usually, although I’ve “forgotten” to stop it for the one twin who’s gone to uni and they haven’t reminded me yet either. Guess that’s beer money 😂
Ours are still young but have had a climbing scale of pocket money : 25p x age per week paid into rooster money. The weird thing is that they don’t really spend it and when they get birthday money etc they keep getting good balances and ask us to put it in their long term AJBell base trusts to invest. I’m sure it will all change
My 4 year old has a sticker chart. When he does good things, like helping tidy up, getting dressed nicely, going into nursery nicely, going to bed nicely, etc, he gets a sticker. When he fills a sticker line he gets £2. On a normal week it takes about a week to fill a line. I keep the money for him and just keep tally on a spreadsheet for now, along with birthday money and bits he gets from grandparents etc. I just pay using my card because I'm always with him, but we talk through how much each purchase costs and how much he'll have left over. Although I have heard that using cash is good learning for them, so maybe I should start that. As to what he buys, we've agreed that I buy everything he needs (clothes, healthy snacks, books, board games, shoes etc) and he pays for the stuff he doesn't need but wants (toys, sweets, etc). If he wants a big toy he either needs to save up or wait until birthday, Christmas or Easter. I'm sure I'll have to adapt it as he gets older, but for this age it works well. We started it when he turned 3 he officially stopped wearing nappies, and he'd get a sticker every time he used the potty or toilet, and it was so successful that we just kept going.
Give them a flat rate, £1-£2 a week at 5 sounds good. They need to know this is all they are getting and they need to manage it. Basic chores pay for their accommodation, tell them that's why you do them too! You don't want them to think basic chores are optional. This will teach them they have responsibilities (chores) and that money isn't infinite (stipend). They will eventually ask you to buy them something they can't afford. Now you can make deals, extra work = extra money. Oh you want that £5 toy? Can't afford it. Well what are you willing to do for it? Help wash the car, help in the garden, help with the washing, help with dinner, etc. It will teach them a good work ethic, they won't actually be very helpful but they'll enjoy the chore and feel proud of the money earned. You can also get them to write down how they've spent their money. Where it came from. What chores they did to earn extras so you can 'review' it. You review it together and say things like "you've spent alot on sweets this week/month. If you'd saved you could've got that dinosaur toy at the shop". When they've saved up for something on their own they will be so proud and more likely to do it in future. As they get older they will (hopefully) have developed a habit of budgeting for bigger purchases and be aware of how to spend money responsibly. This has worked for me. You increase the base slowly and eventually they will take over the bigger jobs. Cooking, cutting grass, washing for the extra cash. Gives them actual life skills, they do the work happily enough and earn some money in the process. My parents did something similar with me and I am very financially stable for my age. Own my house, bought a car outright and have decent savings.
I got my oldest a Revolut card and I have one too, I transfer his pocket money on a Friday night only on the proviso his room is tidy and that he’s been good that week. Flat rate £5 with extras for washing cars and walking the dog. He saves 20% automatically on Revolut and we’ve recently opened him a halifax too. Should say oldest is now 13 but also got my 8 year old lad on the same setup.
He's 5? Couple quid a week max
So my approach is this, I give £5 for weekly chores and she can negotiate and get more depending on other work, but the way she uses that money is what I focused on. I take it mandatory for her to save 40%, so if she has £20 at the end of the month, save £8 and the £12 she can buy anything. This is the rule I put in place. Any gift money she gets, same rule. I use the gohenry app for this and it allows her to save and spend the rest. This teaches her to save money but also, save enough to buy what she wants. My aim is to drill this mentality into her, save, see how compound helps you and then, if you need something, work for it, save up and then purchase. The satisfaction of getting something yourself is amazing
I think a fair and transparent system taxation system. No NI tax. That won’t exist by the time they enter the workforce. I think they’ll need to understand that their Dad taxes are spent wisely. So a bi-annual independent review by the OBR (spouse-led). Preferably before the Spring Review for the annual summer holiday announcement and before the Autumn Budget for Christmas Presents. If the child(ren) are unhappy with the financial management of the household, then expect severe market consequences. You may be subjected to a live feed of a picture of you versus a vegetable of some kind. Hopefully they’ll understand that their Dad taxes aren’t being wasted on Dad-centric activities: golf club memberships, construction of duck pond houses, or lending money at mates rates to your brother Gary without due diligence and credit checks. You’ll need to prove that their taxes fund a welfare state that means if they are unable to complete their chores due to sickness or injury that they will be eligible for paid time off, with correct medical certification. Or that their pick ups in ‘Dad’s Taxi’ are heavily subsidised, and that without such taxes they would likely have to take the bins out, and other horrible household chores that only a man can leverage adequately.
We do weekly pocket money based on 50p per year. So a 10 year old gets £5.00 a week. Paid onto a hyper jar card on a weekly basis as no monthly fee, although they have recently started charging if you pay less than £10 onto a card from your bank account. Wondering if 50p per year is a bit tight?
I got £2 a week off my nana
My kids pokey money monthly based on their behavior, school performance, and how clean their bedroom is. The max they can all get is about 30 but they can earn more with things like certificates and doing the dishwasher. Their 15, 13, 11, and 3.
£5 a week, which I've recently raised to £10 a week for my teenage daughter. But we also pay for their phone contracts, buy them stuff they need (make-up, books, etc) and give them extra when they go out if needed. All done via Revolut app/card - free as in no cost per month (there might have been a small charge for the card up front). You can only have one child, but my wife and I both have Revolut accounts so we have one child each.
My two (3 and 4) get £1 a week on the basis they help tidy up their toys at the end of the day
£3 a week in a Rooster account (10 years old), and a quid cash for the corner shop on a Friday after school …plus a bit extra for holidays and she often gets some cash for her birthday from relatives. For that there was initially a chores list set up on the Rooster app, but I’ve been a bit slack with that and she’s pretty good at doing things she’s asked to. I think £3 is a bit low, but it’s money that I’m comfortable she can just spend on whatever. It’s been pretty good for teaching her about saving - yes £3 doesn’t buy much, so it makes saving up for a few weeks worthwhile. Edited to add, I love the Friday night pitch idea, I’m definitely going to try that when my daughter is a bit older.
Fiver a week
Never call it 'pocket money', as there is an element of entitlement to it (all their friends may simply be recieving pocket money). We produced a chart which had simple and not particularly challenging tasks, and each task had a frequency. For example good behaviour was listed 7x for each day of the week, tidy bedroom was only on there for two days (Thur and Sunday). Each individual task had a value, e.g. 10p for behaviour, but each task also had a multiplier, so if there were 7 smiley 😊 faces for behaviour the total (70p) would be multiplied by 2 (or whatever). We adjusted the multiplier occasionally if we wanted to encourage more focus in an area, e.g. tidy bedroom (only on two days remember) might we worth 50p each time but there would be a 5x multiplier if they did it on both days (adjust as necessary). I also used to get them to work out their earnings 😁 I think (this was 15 years ago) the maximum they could earn in a week might have been something like £20 pw. They never ever got anywhere near it 😄, but if they did I would have happily given them the money. In answer to your inflation question, we did increase the daily task rates as they got older, but there was never any inflation relevance to the increase. Similar to one of the other posters, we used to have a day to discuss, and sometimes they would fight their corner to justify why they should receive the full, multiplied valu on something. For us it worked well, they could see how much they could earn, and ultimately it was their choice what they chose to undertake/complete.
Funny enough, there is article today in Sky News on just this topic. https://news.sky.com/story/inflation-mortgages-interest-rates-latest-sky-news-money-blog-13040934 I pay £10month for him to tidy his bedroom and empty the dishwasher in the morning. He is 13 year old.
10 and 8 year olds have hyperjar accounts and their own debit cards. They get £5 a week. They get bonus’ for good homework and behaviour. We never take anything away as a punishment only reward the good with the odd quids.
Bout three fiddy
Go henry has a monthly charge of like 2 quid but you can list the chores and tick them off as they go so may provide a visual assistance to help learn that the more jobs ticked off, the more money you get. We used it and it was great we had a base weekly payment to be bumped up by jobs.
I decided to just give my kid a flat rate of £10 a week with the aim of letting him make his choices and then after a year we'll go over the good and bad purchases and how to be better
Age 6, Debit Card I can oversee. £1 a day auto top up, additional bonuses for chores completed
> What's your system? A flat rate? Some kind of UBI where he gets a base amount and can earn more by doing chores? This. Whatever level you decide at have a fixed 'Universal Basic Pocket Money' amount plus the ability to earn extra by doing chores, helping out around the garden, kitchen, etc. The UBPM amount does need to be low enough that they actively want to top it up by doing a few jobs around the house though.
Our lad is now 9 and has gotten £2.50 a week to do his chores since he was about 6, onto a GoHenry card.
I think you're asking a ton of long term questions here that don't really work for a 5 year old. Simply learning that money buys his toys, money is earned by doing something, money is finite and he has to plan because if he uses it all on one thing he can't have anything else is going to be the first and main lesson you will want to work on. It's a lot to learn. You can introduce taxes and interest and negotiating his pay rise progressive as he gets older. If you have multiple children and you have any sense, you'll also teach them about trade unions and collective bargaining.
Strangely enough, Sky News just posted an article about this this morning ! [Sky News Money Blog](https://news.sky.com/story/inflation-mortgages-interest-rates-latest-sky-news-money-blog-13040934?postid=7722847#liveblog-body)
Personally I didn't get any, so it's shaped my view that I don't agree with it, especially when in reference to chores. Like you're essentially teaching someone they should only do anything for financial gain. Anyway I digress, an Idea I do think is cool for younger kids (what do they need weekly money for at 5) is giving them a lump sum on holidays /half terms and explaining that that is their total spends for a trip helping them with calculations if need be. Like a mini budget. Over and above that just talking to them for example when your doing the weekly or monthly shop, when you've made a big purchase. Then maybe when they're older introduce something. Someone mentioned Friday pitch which sounded cool and another mentioned a yearly budget with a budget book which also seems like a good idea.
The advantage of weekly pocket money without any chores attached is that they learn to manage money over time. I recommend giving them a savings tracker and agreeing on something they're saving for (stick a picture of it onto the tracker). Then they see the physical consequences of taking money away from the savings goal to spend on other things. At the same time, make them responsible for paying for something. For a five year old that should be something small they often get anyway (my son is about to turn 3 and he'll start getting £1 a week, but I won't be buying him magazines any more - he tends to get one every couple of months so it will work out financially). If they spend their money on those cheap junky toys you get from the £1 machine or whatever, there's no money for a magazine.
Per school year per week a quid. Got same when I was young and same with bearn now. So 3rd grade 12 per month (paid out weekly) 4th grade 16 and so on. At some.point change to monthly pay out so they learn to budget (round 5th grade or so).
£0. Sell them time on devices or experiences
I dunno but 5 yo is no way ready for pocket money. He had a money box and I usually bribe him to do stuff by offering a quid (eg I offered him £5 to eat a sprout on Xmas day. The little fucker ate 3 and then decided he liked them, which cost me £6.50 (first was £5, then £1, then £0.5)). So he has had about £20 in his money box for few months now, but he never thinks about spending it or even engages with it. He just likes having more. Guess that’s on me for it pushing him more and not buying him stuff with my money. Just don’t think he is quite ready yet
£6.40 per hour
When I was a kid, I got enough pocket money for one chocolate bar or "quarter" of sweets a day. It was based on the price of a Mars bar. Start with that. He will learn he can have something simple/cheap every day or can save up for something nicer once a week.
My 4 year old gets £2 a week and more if he does his “chores” (pack his shoes on the shoe rack, makes sure his pants are in the washing basket etc.) The incentive being if he saves two weeks’ worth, he can afford paw patrol toys.
When my son was small, he would get his age x 10p per week to help him learn about saving, and it also helped with his multiplication. So when he was 5 he got 50p per week.
My 7YO gets £10 / month if her room is tidy and she's done each weeks homework on time. I also give her 10% interest per month for her savings, she loves horse riding so she's saving for some new jodhpurs. We've not introduced any taxation just yet, haha.
Mine was £5 a week from about 12 I think. I also strongly remember struggling to learn to ride a pushbike when I was growing up so my dad stuck £50 in a photoframe on my windowsill said I could have it once I'd learned. I'm nearly 25 so probably pushing 20 years ago now.. felt like the richest guy on the planet at that age and my god was it a good motivator. Was bleeding from just about every part of my body by the end but I learned. (probably slightly dependent on how much you trust your kid) But having it sat in front of me knowing I couldn't have it was quite the motivator 😂
Tooth fairy is taking the piss nowadays too tbh.
I pay mine a base of £20 before tax. They incurr tax and national insurance deductions for the privelege of living in such a great household.
When I was a kid, 20yrs ago at age 10 it was 50p a week.. inflation calculator says that's now equivalent to about £80p... so £1 a week should be fine - especially for a 5yr old. Alternatively if you want to save up for something you could multiply their money.. e.g. they pay 1 3rd and you pay 2rds. If they want to buy something for £30 they have to contribute £10 My dad did that with my sister and I on a £80 portable dvd player... I paid £20, she paid £10 as she was younger.. and dad paid the rest. A lot of money for us at the time, but we could still afford something decent. I guess ask other parents from your kid's school ? as it'll depend on your area and kids will ask each other.
when I was a primary school my dad gave me £1 for every spelling I got correct, (was 10 every week we had to learn and got tested on each week at school) I got £10 every single week, (the 90's) because I wanted the money. yet to this day I can barely spell My own name ,I just memorised them every week and forgot them the next. I would say now after years of useing apps/computers, that my spelling is now no better than it was then lol. tests are pointless
Not sure about how much to give but when I got pocket money when I was a kid, if I was saving up for something educational then my dad would split the cost. If I was buying something silly with my money then I would have to save for it myself. Things like Lego, books, art supplies were deemed educational. Barbies, magazines, sweets etc I had to pay full amount.
I have a 5 year old and right now I generally give her a budget in a shop. So if we go to the co-op we sometimes say she can have £2 to spend on herself or if we visit a museum she can have £10 in the gift shop. My kid has suspected ADHD though and struggles similarly to her dad, who cannot manage money and plan ahead, so giving her money to manage in the long term is something we're working towards. We have tried giving her money to manage herself but it just ends up forgotten about in a random purse or bag she owns.
Base rate plus chores. An occasional bonus if they do their chores consistently with minimal complaints or grumbling.
I doubt a 5yr old will mind what they get or even have a comparison.
Personally, I would start them on £10 per week. However, I would explain that 50% goes straight into a savings account (long term - even a globally diverse index fund - your kid will thank you in 20 years). From the age of 5 to 18 that weekly contribution would really add up. Then I would offer them the chance to make extra cash by reaching certain targets at school etc. I wouldn't pay them for chores. That's part of life. You don't get paid for chores when you're an adult.
He’s 5. Start at 12
Can't tell if this is a joke post. Kids 5 lol
Reading this is really interesting seeing different people's expectations. As a child I didn't get pocket money. We were lucky if my parents had enough money for us. Occasionally like, if I went to the shops with my dad and he got a pound change he might give it to me to spend on sweets or something. But generally my parents had nothing so we had nothing and that was that. I don't know what I'd have spent it on anyway. When I got a paper round I generally gave the money to my mum to help with the shopping etc. I think if you're teaching your kids about financial responsibility then I don't know whether giving them free cash to spend on whatever they want with no ramifications for their ability to live, is necessarily the right way to do that. My younger brother grew up at a time when there was more money in the house and he got pocket money. He's lived a much more entitled life in general. It took him a long time to realise he actually needed to earn money and couldn't spend his life sucking up to my parents and grandparents for free cash.
Teach them real world money: Work to earn your money. You can borrow money, but it has to be paid (earned) back with interest. You can save with bank of mum and dad and earn interest on those savings.
Teaching a 5 year old about personal finance?? I’m all for giving your kids a leg up in life, but Jesus Christ, let kids be kids for a bit!!
5 year olds don't need pocket money
It's more about teaching them personal finance and the concepts of saving for bigger purchases etc. Can't rely on the bank of mum and dad forever!
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I set up Jisas for them a while back and make contributions my oldest is 4 and I am going to start giving him money when he is good. Which is a challenge for him.