My 10-Year-Old Has a Checking Account
I want my kids to learn money management.
My kiddos have been receiving an allowance for years, and it works well. I don’t have to deal with requests like “Can I have this silly thing in the checkout land?” or “Can I have a book from the school book order?” I can simply respond “Do you have enough money in your spend jar?”
I pay out allowance in dollar bills for easy counting, which means that I have to occasionally go to the bank to take out cash. It is a bit of a revolving door, because an online purchase means that I am also “repaid” in same dollar bills. But at an allowance rate of one dollar per year of age per week, my oldest son is now up to $10/week and he is now has foresight to save his money for something bigger.
I had opened up savings accounts for both of the kids when I first started the allowance, thinking that we would go to the bank to make deposits of their small amount of money each week. But it was far too much of a hassle and made more sense to just keep the money easily accessible at home, which became the “allowance jars.”
My oldest son received an old iPhone for his 10th birthday a few months ago. He has no actual cell phone number, but can use it on the WiFi at home with a few apps. I have our family Google calendar synced up to the phone so that he…
