Giving your kids allowance is a great way to teach them about financial responsibility, but it doesn’t necessarily instil the concept of trading work for money. A simple job board can teach them some valuable lessons and also get some chores done around the house.
Photo by Pixel Memoirs (Shutterstock).
Trent at the Simple Dollar already had a great concept for giving out allowances. His kids were required to split up the money into investments, donations and long term goals. But to teach them about earning money by working, he set up a a job board with some small extra chores that they normally wouldn’t be responsible for. Whenever they completed a chore, they earned an extra quarter in their allowance. For extra motivation (and realism), he also required them to invest and donate more of their base allowance, leaving less behind for their own purchases.
A lot of parents tie allowances to expected chores, but by offering up extra money for extra work, Trent’s system draws the connection between work and wealth a little more tangibly. For more details on his job board, check out the source link.
Teaching the Idea of Trading Effort for Money [The Simple Dollar]
Comments
3 responses to “Teach Your Kids The Value Of Money With A Job Board”
I’m 14. I didn’t get an allowance, so last year I started my own VHS -> DVD business. I can tell you, I make much more than $2 a week 😉
Yeah, indoctrinate them to become a paid slave for the rest of their life
Why let them have a free childhood, or teach them about responsibility
Some things have to be done, whether you get paid in something you can use or not.
By putting a price on everything, you are fostering a closed mind.
Understanding the benefits of hygiene (or why a clean room is good to have) through unpaid work is worth more to your kid, than the empty gesture of doing it for the sake of money to buy candy or angry birds.
If incentives are the only way your kid will do the work then it won’t stick, once you remove the reward, your kid will stop doing the chores.
Except that the example isn’t putting a price on all work. There’s an ordinary allowance, which the kid gets and uses to learn finanical skills, and then if they do *extra* chores as outlined, they get extra cash. So the ordinary chores are there regardless.
My parents tried that. What I learnt was that with a pair of working feet and a library card, I didn’t need the extra money.