Giving a 6 year old pocket money

[Jamesblema]

DD will be turning 6 next month and I’m thinking of starting to give her some weekly pocket money so she can start making her own decisions about what to buy and how to save up for things etc.

Does this sound like a reasonable age to start? Any thoughts on how much to give her?

I started ds because that's when I started having it. Worked really well and he's an adult now and has grown up really understanding the value of money. Think we started with £2 and £1 was guaranteed and the other was earned with simple chores and good behaviour.

We started at 6 with our first and our second will be 6 in October.
We did £2 per week. And made it clear that if they wanted something outside of birthdays, Xmas, holidays then they needed to save up.
It has worked with the eldest but I am not confident on the youngest as they are a completely different personality

I started giving my DD pocket money about that age. She doesn't really spend it but saves most of it up for when she is on holiday. She like that if I say no to a new toy she can save up and buy it herself. She gets £4 a week at the moment and she is nearly 8.

Dd (7)gets £3 a week, plus 50p extra for things like helping me sort laundry, hoovering her bedroom etc, doing her reading without whinging all week 😅She usually ends up with a fiver a week which I put into a ‘pot’ in Monzo so she can see how much she has.

DD gets it at 4 from her grandad but she doesn’t quite understand yet. We thought we would start from us at 6 when she can have a card to use eg GoHenry and similar. They all seem to be 6+

Age of child per month seems to work well for us as pocket money. If they are given some by relatives, we try and get her to save some of it (what actually happens is that relatives give it to me and I save it on child's behalf!). Exception being my grandmother who at 90 is beyond rules and does what she likes!

It sounds insanely young to me but I do know I’m in a minority as my friends give their kids pocket money.

Pocket money in this house was never chore dependent. Chores are non-negotiable so you don't get to choose not to do them and take a financial hit. There are other punishments, mainly no tech, that work better as an incentive for chores to be done.

I think giving them pocket money is good because they start to learn the value of it, can compare costs of magazines or hair clips etc. If they get cold, hard cash then this can help with understanding it is spent and gone; seeing coins actually handed over as opposed to a parent tapping a card with invisible money.

Fair enough but I haven’t had or used cash since covid so it’s very much our norm. Dd understands how money works, some children might find it a little harder without visualisation.

Mine earn pocket money from doing chores around the house. Started this age 5 with both of mine.

Thanks so much for the replies. Lots to think about.

I’m curious to know why you think it is too young? I don’t have any concerns about her not understanding but maybe it’s something else?

We started when they turned 7, I think 6 is OK too, would have saved alot of stress in Sainsbury's being begged for toys from age 5.