Raring2go! Banbury Bicester Burford: Cotswolds

Pocket Money
Made Simple
Raring2go! MONEY
But the truth is that it doesn’t matter what your own
money management skills are like – use that as a
motivation to teach your children a different way.
It all starts with pocket money. With a few simple
strategies to follow, you’ll soon be showing your
children things which they’ll take with them through
to adult life.
Setting the right amount
It’s not for me to tell you how much pocket money to
pay. But what I do suggest is: link it to their age. That
way it grows as they grow, at their pace.
The easiest way is to pay an amount per month
based on their age. My wife and I pay £2 pocket
money per month for each year of our children’s age;
our daughter is 11, so she gets £22 per month, and
our son is 13 and gets £26 per month.
The amount isn’t important, but linking it to their
age makes pocket money simple for you and your
children.
Needs vs wants
It’s important that children learn the value of money
and how far it goes. The easiest way to do this is that
you buy their needs, and they buy their wants.
Needs would include things like school trips, uniform,
holidays and so on, while ‘wants’ covers everything
else – when my daughter asks for the third time in a
week if she can get some glue to make slime, or my
son asks about a new Xbox game, those fall into their
wants!
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t treat your children
whenever you want to, that’s your prerogative as a
parent: this system simply restricts their spending so
they can learn to manage their money themselves.
Earning and learning
We all have to learn that money doesn’t come for
free. By linking pocket money to the completion
of chores like tidying up or taking out the bins, you
can easily instil the importance of hard work to your
children and its impact on what we earn. It only took
one lower payment after tasks were skipped for our
children to learn that lesson!
Making pocket money dependent on tasks teaches
them that it’s their money, they’ve earned it and are
entitled to it. They feel good, it’s different than when
we’re simply given things.
Sometimes it’s dark, cold or raining when the bins
need to go out, but afterwards my children stand with
pride: they’ve earned their money and get to spend
it on what they want.
more information on how to make better money decisions for
yourself and your children at
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