Allowance

Wow ... so much has been happening since my last post so I'm going to write about a few different things today.

Last week we began giving our son an allowance based on reading. He has the chance to earn up to $5 each week if he reads for 30 minutes Monday through Friday. Let me explain how this works: he earns $1 each day if he reads a book of our choosing for 1/2 hour. This does not apply to Saturday or Sunday and if he misses a day he can't make it up the next. If he reads more than 30 minutes he doesn't earn anything extra - it's just a bonus for his own personal edification.

Each week he is required to perform basic household chores like taking out the trash, picking up his room, making his bed and other cleaning chores. But we have decided that those are part of being a member of our household and they are expected so he doesn't get paid for those tasks.

I came across this idea several years ago when I read John Maxwell's book, "Breakthrough Parenting." In it he described how his parents took this approach to the allowance and how it had produced three adults who LOVED to read. I thought it was brilliant at the time and have been waiting for our kids to be old enough to read and responsible enough to begin teaching them wise money management.

Each week he is paid on Friday and we are teaching him to tithe 10% and save 10%. In the two weeks we've done this he's really beginning to develop a habit and looks forward to reading. It's been wonderful to watch this switch get flipped in his life.

I'm curious, did your parents give you financial counsel as you were growing up? I'm so glad mine did and am prayerfully passing it on to the next generation.