Pocket Money: When Do You Start?

When I was growing up one of my favourite moments of the week was Saturday morning. You  may wonder why. Well, It was time for my pocket money to be handed over to me! My mother started giving me  pocket when I was about six or seven years old. My mum explained that if I wanted to buy something then I would need to save my pocket money until I had enough money. For all intent and purposes it worked, although I’m sure my mum helped me out now and again. The lesson I learnt was simple. Whatever you want in life you have to pay for it and I believe that has kept me in good stead all my life.

I have always loved music and as a teenager I had a passion for buying vinyl and eventually CD’s, but so that I could have the lastest music I would sell the older ones that I had to enable me to buy the lastest music, and obviously use my pocket money if I was a short in the cost. This is why I think pocket money is a good thing, although I think some people maybe think it’s a thing of the past. I don’t. For me it still has a place in 2017.

Unfortunately, when my older children were younger I never had a system for giving them pocket money on a regular basis, looking back I believe that was a mistake. There were a number of reasons why this was the case, and I think the biggest being that, I was divorced from their mother and I had shared custody. As such I got into the habit of buying what they wanted as they wanted something.

The downside of that of course was they didn’t learn the value of money or how to save for something and then having that feeling of satisfaction that they had saved their money to buy it. Of course another negative I imagine was they also didn’t realise that actually everything costs money. Their attitude, which of course I perpetuated, was just ask dad. Big mistake.

I now have an opportunity to change this with my five year old twins. I fully intend to start this process of pocket money. In fact I intend to start it now!

About two years ago my five year old twins had a fascination with money which was started by a family friend giving them money. Thankfully we saw less of that family friend and the twins gradually took less interest in money. That is until just recently. They are definitely becoming more aware of money and when they go to the shops with us they realise you have to pay for items that you want. Their perception of going to the shop and walking out with what you want has disappeared. Thank goodness. They are fully aware that everything has to be paid for.

My wife and I had a chat the other night, and we have decided to give the girls £1 a week pocket money to be put into their money boxes. Then when we go to the shop or supermarket and the twins ask for something or they ask to buy something for themselves, before we go shopping we can ask them to see how much they have saved and hopefully then they can choose what they want.

There are many benefits to this approach at such a young age. Hopefully they will become more careful about what they want to buy knowing that they only have so much money.

It will also teach them that you have to pay for everything you want in life and appreciate that as the saying goes, money does not grow on trees.

Of course in the early days we won’t be hard and fast and I am sure that we will be making up the difference in the cost of whatever they want on a regular basis.

The idea of starting pocket money at just five years old is to educate them about money and it has to be earnt because that’s what mummy and daddy do everyday when they go to work. Hopefully it will also give them good grounding for the management of money for use in their adult lives.

I would love to know your thoughts. What age do you think children should start having pocket money?