<p>I didn’t say it would work in all areas… in fact i even stated it’s different in areas… but i still think you should have to earn the allowance.</p>
<p>In our house, school is the “work” of teenagers. Putting in many hours in a low paying job really would compromise their academics or very extensive activities.</p>
<p>Fortunately for my son, he has a skill set that allows him to earn four times minimum wage. Beginning at age 14 and 15, he was earning $20-25 an hour; a few hours of work a week, set up on his own time, not an employer’s, has allowed him to have plenty of spending and saving money.</p>
<p>This may feed the “entitlement” though, because he sees that he may never have to have a minumum wage paying job. Personally, I don’t see that the minimum wage job is a necessary stepping stone in ones work history, so I think it is fine that he sideswipes it altogether.</p>
<p>Fendergirl, it’s always a pleasure reading your posts. I think your lifestyle and workstyle are ideal and clearly works perfectly for you, and is ideal for many families. I also think you have a higher than average ability to maximize learning opportunities out of an employment experience. After all, the goal is maximum forward progress, regardless of what combination of work/school/activities that means for the individual. You did a great job too of selecting an excellent employer - 28 days of vacation is very unusual. I don’t think we offer 28 total days of vacation, paid holidays, personal days, and sick days. </p>
<p>This thing is a marathon though, it’s not a sprint. There’s a lot of room between now and age 65+++, and, viewed through a global lens, I think it’s going to take some of our brightest and most nimble minds to solve the unprecedented events and challenges coming up over the next five - 40 years, if they even can be solved. I think the foundation for today’s young people has to be to get as much formal, traditional education as possible, and to try to manage resources as efficiently as possible. That includes work, too, but, not if it means compromising formal education - and for a lot of young people, especially while they’re still in high school, it’s either/or, not both.</p>
<p>Ariesathena, over the years I have tried to keep our finances as transparent as possible, and to be as instructive as possible. </p>
<p>For example, back in high school, I assigned to D the process of opening the mail (and/or the email), and spreadsheeting when expenses had to be paid. Grocery store trips, the receipts go on the refrigerator door. When it came time to pay for college freshman year, I transferred the funds to her account, and made her actually write out the checks. AND it’s absolute law in our house that a % every month goes into savings, investments, etc. I don’t care if there’s no money left over for groceries or if we have to do noodles and water for a few days - savings is absolutely, totally, non-negotiable. </p>
<p>Last, I’m obsessive about credit scores, partially because today’s more conservative employers run credit reports in addition to standard background and reference checks, but also because of issues like errors, identity theft, and probably more significantly how a compromised credit score will result in higher interest rates on loans, and even higher costs of car insurance. </p>
<p>There’s a fabulous book (Millionaire Mind?) that drills somewhat into the issue as time as money, being that time is not a renewable resource. So we try to leverage time as efficiently as possible, although, I’m not very good at it, as I clearly am spending too much of it on CC lately lol. But it’s a good book, if you can grab it and read it - focus is on balance sheet wealth and the lifestyle behaviors that support that goal.</p>
<p>Funny, We just decided to give our youngest son an allowance, and he will be the only one of our three to get one. Our oldest child started babysitting very young, first with another friend and then by herself as she grew older. When she was at the end of her high school years she became a camp counselor in the summers but also held short term jobs at retail places during her long winter break plus held 10 hour a week college jobs. In short, the girl knows how to work. </p>
<p>Oldest son (freshman in college this year) has mowed lawns, watched pets and held a summer job last year. This year he didn’t find a job but between mowing one lawn weekly, working one week at a high paying temp job and money from graduation and Eagle ceremony, he will start off with a nice amount in his checking account. He is also planning on working a few hours a week at college. </p>
<p>For our college kids, they earn about $50 a week for 10 hour a week campus jobs. I think this is a good compromise. Ten hours spread over 7 days is not much but $50 a week is plenty of spending money. Our daughter will be doing student teaching this quarter so cannot work a campus job but we put the money that usually goes towards board into her checking account and she will live off of that. </p>
<p>Back to our youngest son. My husband does not like to cook and I recently started working two nights a week. Our youngest son (age 13) likes to cook and has been looking for ways to earn money. We decided that by feeding the dog every night, taking out the trash on Saturdays and cooking two nights a week, we will pay him $10 a week. I could not see my kids working during high school because they did (and youngest son will also) marching band and/or theatre. However, summers are a totally different story. All of my kids friends work in the summer.</p>
<p>like kathie said, most kids here if they don’t work during the year do work during the summers. i’d say a good majority of the kids in my school district work year round, but i know the really involved ones are just summers. i don’t know any kids who don’t work at all. </p>
<p>kathie, he can come to my house and i’ll pay him to make dinner too… i’ll give you directions :)</p>
<p>and late, i know what you mean about the credit scores. if yours isn’t good, watch out. (not you, just saying in general)… one lady at my work actually didn’t get a job based on her credit report, another woman has a 19.9 percent auto loan based on her credit score, and another lady has an $8,000/year car insurance policy for herself, her husband, and her daughter based on her credit report and a recent accident. next time i talk to her daughter i’m going to advise her to take out her own insurance policy, because it will be a lot less for her. last time I checked my score was around 765 which I think is really good for a 23 year old and I haven’t had any problems getting loans and whatnot.</p>