Allowances: Financial Training Ground, or Family Welfare System?

I would assume that most of the kids who read this blog have an allowance, and you're all probly asking, 'Why should I..., could I..., would I not want to have an allowance?!' Well, believe it or not, not having an allowance can train you to actually work for your money, instead of relying on someone to give you a weekly payment. Sure, allowances can train you to have patience to get what you want/need. But when you have to work for your money, you get rid of laziness, which in my opinion is harder to get rid of than patience is to acquire. If you want something that costs money, then work for it. Instead of waiting for your parents to give you enough money for what you want.

Okay, enough about what it teaches right now: What will it do for you later on in your life? As I said earlier, you stop relying on someone to give you money. If you rely on someone to give you money without doing any work then you will start thinking that the world owes you a living, just as you thought that your parents should give you a weekly payment.

How do I know that all these things happen when you get an allowance? Personal experience. I used to have an allowance. I would just wait a couple weeks for enough money to get the toy that I wanted. I began to rely on the allowance more and more. My parents would try to encourage me to do some work for money, but I didn't need any more money; my allowance was just fine. I was lazy; I would just sit around waiting for my money. My parents saw this and permanently took my allowance away. But you know what? I'm very, very glad. Now I have and still am learning to work for all of my money.

In this post, I don't mean to say that all allowances are bad for you and shouldn't be done at all. Some people work really hard to make it a training ground to learn how to use you money wisely. But I'd like to challenge you to achieve something higher, and work for your own money-- all of your own money.

Mablung