How Much to Give

Runtime: ~7 minutes

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The question every parent asks first

When I started teaching this stuff, the first question every parent asked was: how much?

It’s the natural first question. It’s also the wrong first question, which is why I deliberately put it in Lesson 6 and not Lesson 1.

By now you understand: the wiring matters more than the amount. A kid running this system on $3 a week will out-perform a kid getting $20 a week with no system. Every time.

But you still need a number. So here it is.

The simple formula

The default I recommend is $1 per year of age, per week.

• A 5-year-old gets $5 a week
• An 8-year-old gets $8 a week
• An 11-year-old gets $11 a week

That’s a starting point, not a law. Adjust for your local cost of living, your household budget, and what you actually want your kid to be able to do with the money.

Some parents use $1 per year per fortnight instead, which halves the amount. That’s fine for younger kids and tighter budgets — the percentages do the same work either way.

Some parents use $1.50 or $2 per year of age in higher-cost cities. Also fine.

What matters is that the number is:

• Predictable — same amount every time, no surprises
• Enough to allocate meaningfully — if Spend ends up being 40 cents, that’s not really a Spend allocation, that’s a tease
• Within your budget for the long haul — better to start lower and raise later than start high and have to cut

Why the number is less important than you think

I want to make a point that will save you a lot of agonising.

A kid getting $3 a week, running the five-pillar system for ten years, who learns to earn extra income from age 7 onwards, will arrive at 18 with vastly more financial competence than a kid getting $20 a week with no system.

The pocket money is a tiny stream of practice money. The real value isn’t the dollars — it’s the thousands of small decisions they’ll make about those dollars. How many decisions you give them is much more important than how big each decision is.

If your budget is tight and $5 a week feels like a stretch, give $2. Tell your kid the system matters more than the amount, and the amount will grow over time. That’s a real, honest message and it’s also a great financial lesson on its own.

The split, by age

I’ll repeat what I gave you last lesson, but now applied to actual dollar amounts.

Age 5 — $5 a week

• Save: 30% → $1.50
• Spend: 50% → $2.50
• Give: 10% → $0.50
• Invest: 10% → $0.50 (you match this 100% — total $1)

In practice, with coins, this is a $2 coin, two $1 coins, and four 50c pieces. Easy to split.

Age 8 — $8 a week

• Save: 25% → $2.00
• Spend: 40% → $3.20
• Give: 10% → $0.80
• Invest: 25% → $2.00 (you match 50% — total $3)

A bit harder to split exactly with coins. At this age the digital pivot starts to make sense.

Age 11 — $11 a week

• Save: 20% → $2.20
• Spend: 30% → $3.30
• Give: 10% → $1.10
• Invest: 40% → $4.40 (you match 25% — total $5.50)

By now they should be running the splits themselves on their app or in their own spreadsheet. You’re confirming, not doing it for them.

A note on the parent match

The parent match is the thing that makes the Invest pillar feel different to the kid. It’s how you make “money that grows on its own” visible at an age where actual stock market returns are too abstract.

The match tapers as they get older — 100% at 5, 50% at 8, 25% at 11 — and by 13 or so it stops, because by then their Invest balance should be in a real investment account that’s growing on its own, and the lesson has moved from “Mum/Dad makes it grow” to “the market makes it grow.”

If 100% match feels too generous on $5 a week, remember you’re matching 50 cents. The amount is trivial. The lesson is enormous.

What pocket money should and shouldn’t cover

Two simple rules.

Pocket money covers their wants, not their needs.

You’re still buying their clothes, school supplies, food, basic toys for birthdays and Christmas. Pocket money is for the extras — the icy pole at the pool, the trading card pack at the newsagent, the random tat at the school fete that they have to have.

This boundary matters. If pocket money has to cover essentials, you’re not teaching financial choice — you’re outsourcing your parental responsibility. The system stops being a learning tool and starts being a financial pressure.

As they get older, the wants list expands.

By 9 or 10, you can start letting them take responsibility for some categories that used to be yours. The “fun” component of weekend outings, maybe. A bit of their own clothing budget for non-essentials. Mobile data top-ups by 12 or so. This is a deliberate handover, agreed in advance, with the pocket money amount adjusted to make it possible.

By 14, 15, 16 you’re handing over substantial categories. That’s a topic for a later module — the system evolves, and we cover the teenage version in Lesson 12.

What about birthday money, gifts, found money?

Same system applies. Five pillars, age-appropriate split.

Grandma sends $50 for Christmas? Great. The 8-year-old splits it: $12.50 to Save, $20 to Spend, $5 to Give, $12.50 to Invest. (You can choose whether to match or not on gifted money — most parents don’t, on the basis that the gift is already extra.)

The exception: if it’s gifted money for a specific purpose — Grandma sent $50 for new shoes — then that’s earmarked, not pocket money.

This is one of the most important consistency rules. The system applies to all money, not just the money you give them. Otherwise birthday week becomes a candy bonanza and the rest of the year becomes the system, and the kid learns the system is a constraint they tolerate.

Common parent worries

“They don’t appreciate the value of money.”

They will, once they have to choose. The system creates appreciation through forced choice. Without it, every “no” you say feels arbitrary; with it, the trade-offs are visible.

“They’ll spend it all on junk.”

Some of it, yes, especially at the start. That’s the Spend Bank’s purpose. The Save, Give and Invest pillars are not optional, so even the worst impulse-spender is still saving and investing 60% of every dollar.

“My income is inconsistent — I can’t promise a fixed amount.”

Pick an amount you can sustain at the bottom of your range. If you have a great month, that’s when you do bonuses, parent matches, or commission opportunities — not when you raise the base. The base needs to be rock-solid (back to Lesson 3 on trust).

What’s coming

Next lesson — the Weekly Task question. Should pocket money be tied to Weekly Tasks, given unconditionally, or some mix? I’ll give you a real answer, not a “it depends.”

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Action for this lesson: Pick your number. Write it down. Write down the four allocation amounts. Don’t start yet — we’ll do the actual setup in Lesson 8 — just commit to the numbers now.

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— Bec