No Work, No Pay

This is a household value your children should understand from an early age. That’s the way it works in the real world: you can’t do half your job and expect your employer to pay you half your salary.

You’re not going to let your younger kids “sink or swim.” For them it’s all positive reinforcement. So, do the chores with them, let them check off each job after it’s completed, then put a sticker on the chart to show “A Job Well Done!”


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For the older ones, however, it’s “Three Strikes And You’re Out.” You will remind them to complete their chores only three times a week. If they don’t do them, and don’t do them properly, it’s “No work, no pay.”

Life’s Natural Consequences

Kids are born with a sense of entitlement. They are on the Earth and are therefore entitled to get what they want. As infants, they are entitled to have all their needs met because their first instincts are for survival. The first concept they’re going to understand – the first one they need to understand – is getting -- and after that comes having.

When it comes to money, they’re naturally going to understand spending first, earning second. A true understanding of saving and sharing doesn’t come till later. But it’s still important that parents keep presenting all four aspects of dealing with money together, as a natural part of the process.

Magic card or not, it’s the tangibility of money that makes it such an effective and early tool in teaching children how the world is structured. It’s tangible and it’s visible: they see it every day, they see it being used, and they quickly grasp the general concept of how it’s used.

How Much

The days of 5-cent sodas and 50-cent allowances are gone. If you pay your children too little, you are telling them their work has no value and you take away their incentive to work.

I make it objective and if you can afford it, I suggest you pay your child his age in a weekly allowance – a four-year-old earns $4 a week, a ten-year-old earns $10. I’m sure you are gasping for air right about now because this seems like a large amount. (When I was a kid, I tried to convince my parents to pay me my weight each week. It didn’t fly.)

This is really not a huge amount when you see in further articles how your children will learn to budget and save and spend their money. Very soon your children will understand that indeed, “Money Doesn't Grow on Trees.”

Neale S. Godfrey, financial guru and former bank president, is an acknowledged expert on family finance. She is the author of 16 books that deal with money, life skills, and value issues. In August 2006, Neale revised and updated her #1 New York Times Best Seller, Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children. She has sold over 1,000,000 books. Neale’s latest book is LIFE, INC: The Ultimate Career Guide for Young People. She has also created an educational program called The One and Only Common Sense/Cents Series. Neale has appeared on such TV shows as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNBC, NBC, and CNN.

Source: All text by Neale S. Godfrey. All text is the sole property of Children’s Financial Network, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more at Minyanville's .

Help kids learn about money at MinyanLand.com.

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