Allowances
We just started giving Dutch an allowance. Well, I did. Cook isn't fully on board. I just think that given how much of modern life is based on the earning and spending of money, you can't start too early. She already asks for things, she vaguely understands the concept of money, she's subjected to targeted advertising, and I think that means she needs to begin learning how to make financial decisions. It's important to know about money. I didn't know until I was 8 or so that when you wrote a check, you had to eventually pony up real money to back it up. (A side note: I also didn't know until just this minute, when I thought I'd be clever and make a cultural reference, that the Dire Straits song goes "money for nothing and your chicks for free" - I always thought it was "checks for free". I'm apparently a cultural moron, as well as a poor financial decisionmaker.) And I'd like Dutch to know that by the time she's oh...six? Of course, checks won't exist when she's six - you'll just give a DNA sample and they'll withdraw money from your universal account.
One big question is whether to pay the kid for doing chores. (An interesting note on the allowance gender gap - parents pay their sons more to do household chores than they do their daughters.) I'm taking the route that she just gets the allowance, and chores will be part of her work as a member of the family. (That's all hot air, as she has no chores. Getting her to brush her teeth and get to bed at a reasonable hour takes all my energy. Maybe next year...) Anyway, she has to save 20%, share 10%, and use the rest on anything she want outside of the basics (clothes, shelter, food, love, etc.). We opened a bank account for her, and I finagled a freebie piggybank with three sections. So far she's just interested in the putting-money-in-the-slots part, which is fine with me. I'm sure we'll get to the how-to-save-for-the-things-you-want part eventually.
Maybe I'll learn about making good financial choices. I'm pretty sure that grad school wouldn't count.
One big question is whether to pay the kid for doing chores. (An interesting note on the allowance gender gap - parents pay their sons more to do household chores than they do their daughters.) I'm taking the route that she just gets the allowance, and chores will be part of her work as a member of the family. (That's all hot air, as she has no chores. Getting her to brush her teeth and get to bed at a reasonable hour takes all my energy. Maybe next year...) Anyway, she has to save 20%, share 10%, and use the rest on anything she want outside of the basics (clothes, shelter, food, love, etc.). We opened a bank account for her, and I finagled a freebie piggybank with three sections. So far she's just interested in the putting-money-in-the-slots part, which is fine with me. I'm sure we'll get to the how-to-save-for-the-things-you-want part eventually.
Maybe I'll learn about making good financial choices. I'm pretty sure that grad school wouldn't count.
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