Money

How much allowance should my child get?

Last reviewed August 30, 2026 · Relevant for ages 6 to 18

Quick answer

A common starting point is 50 cents to a dollar per year of age, each week. That puts a 10-year-old somewhere between $5 and $10 a week. But the amount matters less than what you decide the allowance is for: if it only buys sweets, almost any number works. If it has to cover things your child would otherwise ask you for, it needs to be big enough that saying no to themselves is a real decision.

What to consider

What you want it to teach
Waiting, choosing between two things, or covering their own costs. These need different amounts. An allowance meant to teach saving has to be large enough that saving half still buys something eventually.
What it has to cover
Decide explicitly what moves onto their budget. If snacks, small toys, and gifts for friends become theirs to fund, the number goes up, and so does the learning.
Whether it is tied to chores
Paying for everyday family chores tends to turn help into a transaction. Most families do better keeping a baseline of unpaid family responsibilities, with optional paid extras on top.
What you can sustain
An allowance you quietly stop paying after two months teaches something you did not intend. Pick a number you will still pay in six months.
Your child stage
Under about six, money is close to abstract. From six to nine, saving toward a goal starts working. From ten, real trade-offs and mistakes become the point.

The numbers

The common convention

$0.50 to $1.00 per year of age, weekly

So roughly $4 to $8 for an eight-year-old, or $6 to $12 for a twelve-year-old. This is a widely repeated rule of thumb, not a researched benchmark.

A frequently used split

50% spend, 40% save, 10% give

Also a convention rather than a finding. Its value is that it makes saving automatic instead of a decision your child has to make every week.

What the evidence actually supports

Consistency over amount

There is no strong public dataset establishing a correct allowance figure by age. What is defensible is that a predictable, regular amount your child controls creates more learning than an irregular larger one.

Your options

Unconditional allowance

Best for: Families who want money and chores kept separate

Advantages

  • Chores stay a family expectation rather than paid work
  • Simple, predictable, and hard to argue about
  • Your child always has money to practise decisions with

Disadvantages

  • No built-in link between effort and earning
  • Can feel like an entitlement if nothing else is expected

Typical cost: Age in dollars, weekly

Chore-linked allowance

Best for: Families who want effort and money explicitly connected

Advantages

  • Direct line between work and reward
  • Gives you a natural consequence when work is not done

Disadvantages

  • Children may start declining unpaid help
  • Requires tracking, which is usually what collapses first
  • Awkward when a child simply decides they would rather not have the money

Typical cost: Similar totals, but variable week to week

Baseline plus paid extras

Best for: Most families, as a middle path

Advantages

  • Keeps a floor of unpaid family responsibility
  • Lets children earn more when they want to
  • Teaches that extra income requires extra work

Disadvantages

  • Two systems to explain
  • Needs a short, visible list of paid jobs

Typical cost: Base amount plus roughly $5 to $15 a month in extras

Budget transfer

Best for: Teenagers, roughly 14 and up

Advantages

  • Moves real categories such as clothes or social spending onto them
  • Produces genuine trade-offs and genuine mistakes
  • Closest to how money will actually work for them

Disadvantages

  • Larger sums, so mistakes cost more
  • Needs a clear, written agreement about what it covers

Typical cost: Varies widely; it replaces spending you already do

Work out your number

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Allowance per week

$8

for an 8-year-old, or $416 a year

Rate One unit per year of age, each week
Show as

A suggested split

Spend $4
Save $3.20
Give $0.80

A dollar per year of age is a widely used convention, not a researched benchmark. Treat it as a defensible starting point and adjust for what you want the allowance to teach.

Your action plan

This week

  1. Write down, in one sentence, what you want the allowance to teach.
  2. List what it will now cover, and what stays on your budget.
  3. Pick the amount and the day it is paid, and tell your child both.
  4. Decide whether saving is compulsory or encouraged, and say which.

Next month

  1. Review whether the amount was too small to make any decision interesting.
  2. Check whether you actually paid it every week without being reminded.
  3. If saving is not happening, make it automatic rather than adding a rule.

Watch for

  • Your child starts expecting payment for ordinary family help.
  • The allowance quietly lapses, then restarts, which teaches unreliability.
  • They spend everything within a day, every week, and never feel a trade-off. That usually means it covers too little.
  • You end up topping them up anyway, which cancels the whole lesson.

Common questions

What age should we start?

Most families find it starts working around six or seven, when a child can hold a goal in mind for more than a few days. Earlier is not harmful, it just teaches less.

Should I pay for good grades?

It is a separate question from allowance, and it tends to work poorly as a long-term motivator. If you want to reward school effort, one-off recognition usually causes fewer problems than a standing rate.

What if they spend it all immediately?

That is the lesson working, as long as you do not replace the money. The cost of the mistake at nine is trivial. At nineteen it is not.

Where these numbers come from

Ready to build the whole money system?

You now know what to do. This is for actually running it.

A practical system for teaching allowance, saving, spending, earning and responsibility, organised by age. The answer above is free and always will be. This is for the part that has to happen every week afterwards.

Teach money and responsibility.

Money-Ready Kid

Build your child's money habits before money becomes a problem.

Recommended here because you are working on money.

The problem
You want to teach your child about money, but it is unclear what to teach, how much to give, and when to introduce each idea. So it gets postponed, and then they are fifteen.
Best for
Ages 6 to 16
What it covers In development