Allowances, Chores & Money Jars: How to Teach Kids to Manage Money

This past Sunday on the MomShow one of the topics we discussed was starting to teach kids how to manage money. One of the ways we talked about helping kids understand finances is to make money jars for their allowance and other money they receive. When they divide their money into separate jars they are learning responsibility and setting goals from the very beginning. After the show my daughter, Isla and I, gathered the supplies necessary to make money jars for our house.

I didn’t want to make this a complicated or involved process. We went to Michaels and purchased small glass jars and chalkboard stickers. I realized once we got home that we didn’t have chalk but we had a gold marker so we used that to write on the stickers. We made eight jars, four for each child. All the supplies totaled $12.43.

We decided to make four different jars: Save, Spend, Give and College. We assigned a percentage to each jar: Save 10%, Spend 70%, Give 10% and College 10%. At the beginning of summer, we started a points system at home for doing chores or being helpful around the house. Points are assigned to tasks and tallied over the course of the week. Every 5 points = $1. Money is paid on Friday. Now that we have the kid's money jars, the money will be divided between the jars based on the percentages above. This system has worked for our family. We have tried charts and more complicated things in the past that have not worked. As you can see from the pictures, we are sticking with simple; and simple is what we are all able to commit to so far.

My kids are 9 and 11 years old. I decided to include a fourth jar for College to introduce the expectation of some sort of schooling after high school. I think this jar can be optional. Save, Spend and Give would be a great place to start, especially if you have younger children.

Check out Dr. Amy's recent talk on the MomShow here!