Allowance Chart

It's so important to teach our children how to handle money and it's never too early to start. My sister and I were talking and I'm probably the best with money of my four siblings. And I'm not where I need to be. I wonder how much better I would be if my parents actually sat down and taught me how to budget, the importance of saving and things like that. I think most parents forget to pass their knowledge of money down to their children. Even if it's learning through our mistakes we need to teach our children.

Even though my husband and I will probably never be at a place where we can give our kids a nice size allowance, I wanted to give them something so I can teach them how to save and live within their means. I decided when KJC turned five this past year, I would start giving her a dollar a week. I had heard somewhere to give kids change for an allowance because it seemed like they were getting more. And I'm sure you can do the same with older kids who get more and use dollar bills. I made this allowance chart so she can divide her money herself......

I divided it up 10% for tithing, 10% for long term savings, 10% for short term savings, 5% for the family mission fund and the rest for spending. I'm not sure if I want to stick with this. But as I learn better how to save my money and put money aside for different things, I might change this.

I was looking for paper coins that looked real, but couldn't find any. So I had to use plastic. I put the coins I would give her up to the top and then divided those same coins into the categories. I made a color copy and stuck it in a protective sleeve. You can also laminate it if you have a machine or access to one. I made three of these. I'm weird, and I like to see change all mixed up (with dollars too), so that each bank wouldn't have all the same coins, I made three and changed the coins around. :)

I don't get good ideas very often. Usually when I do something, I found it somewhere else. I'm very proud to say this was all my idea. I'm sure someone else does this too, but I didn't find this and duplicate it. :)

And to explain the family mission fund, in our church people in their early twenties can serve a mission for our church. Instead of everyone saving for individual missions, I decided to do one big mission fund so anyone who wanted to use it could and everyone would be contributing to the mission. Maybe my husband and I could even use it to go on a Senior mission when we are ready to retire.