How much allowance for teenagers?

fred246

I think it was more of "oh no, mum I have dropped my phone". "Don't worry darling we will get you a new one. What about the latest iPhone?

squizz11

mine got nothing unless they earned it,  2 are adults now and the 14 year old has been doing  a paper round for a year and half now and cuts neighbours grass and washes cars so earns his own money.
I will buy  their clothes till they are 18 and pay for phone,  but none of them are into the latest phone or brand named clothing , which I consider a blessing

maman

squizz11 said:

mine got nothing unless they earned it,  2 are adults now and the 14 year old has been doing  a paper round for a year and half now and cuts neighbours grass and washes cars so earns his own money.
I will buy  their clothes till they are 18 and pay for phone,  but none of them are into the latest phone or brand named clothing , which I consider a blessing

But if you are paying for the phone and clothes then they aren't getting nothing.
The allowance we gave our DDs was so that they managed the money themselves rather than us buying clothes etc for them. It didn't make them wealthy and both took p/t jobs as well. 

squizz11

the phone is cheap , and I rarely buy clothes as they are boys and not fussed by them and it's normally just essentials,  they use the money they earn  if they want to go  out, they pay their own travel food etc and any money saved is normally on gaming 

kimwp

I'm wondering if there is a potential pitfall with teens managing the money for the essentials - for example, that they might prefer to wear clothes with holes in and save for other things. Or simply mismanage their budget so not be able to buy basics they need or even that it's a bit much for them to handle. Have parents that do allowances this way come across this?

maman

kimwp said:

I'm wondering if there is a potential pitfall with teens managing the money for the essentials - for example, that they might prefer to wear clothes with holes in and save for other things. Or simply mismanage their budget so not be able to buy basics they need or even that it's a bit much for them to handle. Have parents that do allowances this way come across this?

Oh yes! That's why we paid for school uniform. We also didn't include basic toiletries as they came from the grocery budget. They only paid for fancy stuff like make up out of the allowance. Fortunately our DDs could walk to school otherwise we probably would have included a season ticket in the school spending. We didn't include school meals though and they didn't starve. 🤣 I have heard of families that let children make their own sandwiches from home. 

helensbiggestfan

kimwp said:

I'm wondering if there is a potential pitfall with teens managing the money for the essentials - for example, that they might prefer to wear clothes with holes in and save for other things. Or simply mismanage their budget so not be able to buy basics they need or even that it's a bit much for them to handle. Have parents that do allowances this way come across this?

Definitely.  

 My two were chalk and cheese.  One a saver, almost miserly,  the other one a spender who let money slip through his fingers and who constantly needed "subbing". He needed monitoring and guidance.  

The beauty of letting them manage their own finances is that it taught them to do exactly that.  They got to learn and make their mistakes whilst living at home so by the time they got to university they knew how to manage their money and didn't get into the financial messes that some of their peers found themselves in.  

The spender is now not just a saver but a shrewd investor, despite not being a particularly high earner at present. A few years ago he decided to change horses, he took a couple of backward steps, retrained and switched career paths, something he wouldn't have been able to do if he had continued with his younger selfs spendthrift habits, and ending up with a pile of debt.  Being debt free and having savings gave him freedom and choice.  

Both are now in their mid 30s and working towards FIRE. (Financial Independence Retire Early). They seem to have found the right balance of enjoying life now without running up debts and being able to think about their  long term plans and dreams.  

I think allowing teens to run their own finances from an early age gives them the knowledge and confidence to make good choices.  

kimwp

helensbiggestfan said:

kimwp said:

I'm wondering if there is a potential pitfall with teens managing the money for the essentials - for example, that they might prefer to wear clothes with holes in and save for other things. Or simply mismanage their budget so not be able to buy basics they need or even that it's a bit much for them to handle. Have parents that do allowances this way come across this?

Definitely.  

 My two were chalk and cheese.  One a saver, almost miserly,  the other one a spender who let money slip through his fingers and who constantly needed "subbing". He needed monitoring and guidance.  

The beauty of letting them manage their own finances is that it taught them to do exactly that.  They got to learn and make their mistakes whilst living at home so by the time they got to university they knew how to manage their money and didn't get into the financial messes that some of their peers found themselves in.  

The spender is now not just a saver but a shrewd investor, despite not being a particularly high earner at present. A few years ago he decided to change horses, he took a couple of backward steps, retrained and switched career paths, something he wouldn't have been able to do if he had continued with his younger selfs spendthrift habits, and ending up with a pile of debt.  Being debt free and having savings gave him freedom and choice.  

Both are now in their mid 30s and working towards FIRE. (Financial Independence Retire Early). They seem to have found the right balance of enjoying life now without running up debts and being able to think about their  long term plans and dreams.  

I think allowing teens to run their own finances from an early age gives them the knowledge and confidence to make good choices.  

What did you do with subbing the spender to keep things fair with the saver?

helensbiggestfan

We bailed him out but he had to pay it back.  It was a loan, not a gift.  😂.   

The saver was not phased or jealous  because he knew his brother had to pay the loan back. 

Of course that made the spender short the next month but he soon “got it”.   

The also both got part time jobs when they were old enough.  That helped. Not just with money but also with their career aspirations.  Once they realised how  work can be both hard and boring  for relatively little reward they really pulled out the stops to work hard at school and go to university for better life choices. 

zagfles

kimwp said:

I'm wondering if there is a potential pitfall with teens managing the money for the essentials - for example, that they might prefer to wear clothes with holes in and save for other things. Or simply mismanage their budget so not be able to buy basics they need or even that it's a bit much for them to handle. Have parents that do allowances this way come across this?

We found ours were at first too tight when it came to spending their money. Sometimes they'd miss out on fun stuff because they didn't want to pay for it, even though they could afford to. But they soon learnt to get the balance right.

It's better they learn when they're in the early teens, rather than when they get a job or go to uni, when they could get into real trouble if they haven't learnt to manage money.