I pretty much only use cash for buying things on FB marketplace, so the idea of giving my kids cash to teach them about responsible spending and value etc seems antiquated. But giving them a debit card seems too abstract. What are you all doing?
I give them money for doing things and in return, they get things. I advise them on spending but don’t force it. This way they are free to use their money but also learn effectively over time. If you force their decision, or override their decision, you effectively eliminate the learning.
Our oldest is only 4 years old but when there is a flea market or a street market we give him some money he can use to buy stuff. This way he learns that he can’t buy everything he sees and has to set priorities.
We still pay allowance in cash for our preteen. It gets divided into save, give and spend. If there’s something she wants purchased online, she pays us the cash and we order it with our card. If the purchase is going to take most/all of her current spending money we do point that out but don’t prevent her from spending it.
I’m not sure yet what we’ll do when she gets closer to driving age. Most likely get a debit card so she can get that experience before going out on her own after graduation. But for now we want to build a more solid connection of physically parting with the money when it’s spent.
edit: fixed autocorrect error
We do Greenlight for this, which has a management app and a debit card. It’s not perfect, but it’s working well for our preteen son and is pretty flexible. We can add money when he completes chores and can partition what he can spend where. It works and he’s definitely gaining more of an understanding of how to manage his money.
Edit - Greenlight also gives you a qr code and payment link that (e.g.) his grandmother can use to pay him for mowing her yard, etc. No cash involved.
This is so steep at $6/mo
We’ve had a box that comes in three segments. Each has a label: Save, Give, and Spend. Easy to find online.
The weekly cash allowance, as well as family and holiday gifts all go in there, split into portions. The spend section typically gets used when hanging out with friends or after sports practice. Usually candy or junk food. If going on a planned field trip or a group gathering with friends, we throw in some extra funds ($5-$20) so they can get food, snacks, or treat a friend. Nothing is digital or credit based.
When the Save or Give sections get full, kid gets to pick a charity (‘Give’) or we walk down to the bank to deposit the ‘Save’ cash into a kid’s saving account with no monthly fee.
It’s worked pretty well so far.
