A few days ago, I had lunch with my sister whose kids are younger than mine. We started chatting about money and kids’ spending and allowances. And grades, and motivation. We’ve tried a lot of things with my kids (now 13 and 17). Here are my three favorites.
iAllowance
iAllowance is an app that’s been around for years. With it, I invisibly give the kids a small allowance that’s automatically divided between two accounts (or piggy banks) – spending and savings. We started using it when I wanted to reward them for doing their part around the house, but I couldn’t keep track of dollar bills and allowance payday. Now the app does it for us! The kids know that “spending” is money they can ask me for any time. When they see something little that they want to buy, I’ll buy it and deduct the amount from their spending account on the app. No dollar bills exchange hands, and nobody has to remember when payday is. “Savings” is for long-term, big purchases. In our case, this has specifically meant computers for high school.
Just a couple of dollars a week adds up! The app also allows me to pay interest on their savings accounts, at any rate I choose! It automatically adds the interest every month. I set it pretty high because I want to encourage them to save. (Be careful! Even 1% per month grows pretty fast.)
Image: iAllowance
The money in iAllowance doesn’t exist at all until they spend it, of course. In other words, it still has to be in MY account when they’re ready to spend it.
The small allowance they’re earning with iAllowance isn’t tied to chores or anything. They do help us out with tasks around the house, but these aren’t tied in any way to their small allowance.
The iAllowance app has a lot of features that we don’t use now, that might work better for younger kids. Chore checkoff, “Star” rewards, non-monetary rewards, and more. Check it out if you’re looking for a new way to keep track of chores or allowances!
Image: iAllowance
The Job Jar
This isn’t your mom’s job jar. For a while, everyone here was working full time and we hired a cleaning crew to come every other week. We paid them to clean up after us. The expense bothered me, but, more importantly, it seemed like my family worked harder cleaning up for the cleaning crew than they would cleaning up for ourselves and each other. I canceled the cleaning crew. The problem is that I HAVE house-cleaning. And I was still willing to pay someone to do it for me.
I made a list of the things the cleaning crew did every 2 weeks — vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, etc…, and assigned a dollar value to each task. The total was approximately what we had paid the crew, so each job was worth quite a bit (most $3-$10). I put the jobs (with expectations & instructions) on cards and put the cards in a jar. Each kid also has a jar, and I have a jar. Jobs are first-come-first-served. Finished job cards move to the person’s jar, and cards are exchanged for money after 2 weeks, and I did anything that was left. (Yes, this means I pay myself for cleaning the house!) The money they earn for doing these specific whole-house jobs is in addition to the allowance they automatically earn every week for generally being helpful.
A side benefit of this system is that the kids had some guided practice in those “adulting” skills that millennials seem not to have – running the vacuum, cleaning a toilet, changing their sheets.
We’ve moved away from this system lately, but it’s still there for those times when the kids want to earn some extra cash.
Pay for Grades
My kids know that I know that middle school grades don’t matter. (Habits and skills matter.) But in high school, grades DO matter, starting on the very first day. My older one wasn’t intrinsically motivated by grades, but he had the habits and skills to get good grades if he worked at it. We created “Pay for Grades.”
- Final grades
- Each “A” is worth $25
- If ALL of them are A’s, each “A” is worth $100
It seems like a lot, I know. His high school uses a block system, so he only has four or five classes each semester, and the semester grades are the final grades. Another thing to know is that he is busy with band and robotics after school, so getting a paying job would interfere with all of that. We consider school to be his job, and this is his bonus. The money is his to use as he likes, which usually means gas, food, and video games.
Note that I don’t pay for B’s, but other kids might need that. I don’t pay for progress reports or midterms, but other kids might need that. The novel part of the idea here is the BIG multiplier for the ultimate achievement you want to see.
I consider this system an investment in his future earnings (scholarships, specifically). He hasn’t gotten straight A’s every semester, but I’ve had to write the big check a couple of times. It was kind of fun.
Gayle Thompson