Haley's Weekly Family Finance Pick (#4)

This is entry #4 in a weekly summer series by "guest blogger" and FamZoo summer intern Haley Dwight.

Before I start my weekly blog post, I have a bit of a confession to make. The sad truth is that I failed to complete my top 3 this week. I had another job and my Dad was out of town, which made it very hard to focus on my work here at FamZoo :(

I did, however, stumble upon an article that I want to share. So here is my “top 1”.

Children’s Allowance: What and When to Pay by Ray Martin for CBS Money Watch

My youngest brother when he was a baby - so cute!
Happy 4th!

Ray offers four tips to giving an allowance:

• teach important lessons with small amounts of money,
• start giving an allowance once your child understands that money is exchanged for goods,
• generally do not give money in exchange for chores or grades, and
• pay enough to cover a certain amount of agreed-upon expenses.

I love the idea of agreeing upon a budget and making your child responsible for managing expenses within it. My parents have taken this approach with our family. Us kids are responsible for paying any entertainment, dining, and clothing fees and staying within our budgets. If we want something extra, we save for it. As you may know, FamZoo just released a budgeting feature, which is perfect for planning any type of budget with your child!