Teaching kids the importance of money management is one of the important tasks of parenthood.  And they’re never too young to start learning how much things cost, how to earn money, how to save money, and how to spend money.

There are many ways kids an earn money.  In the past, we’ve given our kids the potential to earn half there age in money each week by completing all of their chores.  So our 10 year old has the potential to earn $5, our 8 year old has the potential to earn $4, etc.  If they complete all but a couple of their chores, they can earn half of that amount.

Our custom chore charts have been a great tool for tracking those weekly chores.  They are fully customizable and give the kids a tangible place to mark off things when they’re done.

We also use a “work for hire” system where they can earn extra money by doing more difficult chores.

In addition, sometimes the kids get money for their birthday or other money-making efforts like lemonade stands, so it’s important to have a system for keeping track of all that money.

With our kids earning, we decided that while they’re young, we want them to learn the importance of saving money and charitable giving.  So we break down their earnings like this:

• 10% to tithing (charitable giving)
• 40% to savings
• 50% to checking (spending)

You can determine what’s best for your family, but this is what works best for us and gives our kids the chance to save up for college and a church mission.

Because the kids are saving and donating so much, I try not to put stipulations on what they do with their spending money.  If they want to use it for an $8 mini cup of dip ‘n dots, that’s up to them (wouldn’t be my choice, but I think it’s important for them to learn what things cost and what wise purchasing choices are).

To keep track of their money, we use a family bank account system.  It’s similar to how a normal bank operates, but we (as parents) are the bank.  We track their incoming money and immediately divide it into charity, savings, and spending.  Just like a normal bank, we hold onto their money for them and it will always be safe in the “bank”.  They can choose to withdraw cash at any time from their checking account, but are then entirely responsible to keep track of it (no reimbursement for lost money).

I created both a physical pdf copy of the family bank account ledger, and a digital copy in the form of a google sheet.  We used the paper copies in a binder for several years, but have switched over to the google sheet and I love the flexibility of having it on my phone at any time (for withdrawals when we’re not at home).

You can download both versions below.  Let me know if you have any questions about our family money system in the comments!

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