What Age are Louisiana Kids Ready for an Allowance? Experts Say 3

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As the father of a 12 and a 3-year-old, the question of allowances has come up a lot in our house.  I know that everyone has their own set of rules regarding the payout of cash to our kids, and I'm not here to judge.  Really, the right answer of if and/or when to give a child an allowance is a case-by-case basis at best.  I mean, there are so many factors at play - there may be no "right" answer, just the one that works for your family.

With that being said, I recently read a report from Rocket HQ about kids and allowances.  They laid out some pretty useful pros and cons of allowances in general, mostly about how showing them the relationship between work and money, and to give them a good primer on budgeting and saving.  The part that blew me away, however, was the suggested age at which kids should start getting a little moolah from mom and dad.

Rocket reached out to the child-development experts that work for Sesame Street who told them that kids as young as 3-years-old understand the basic difference between wants and needs - and therefore were ready to start their monetary education.  If that seems like a bit too young - they suggest possibly waiting until they start to lose their baby teeth.  That way, the injection of cash from the "tooth fairy" could serve as a lead in to the wild world of money.

Personally, even though I am fully behind the idea of allowances - I think I'll wait until she starts kindergarten.  Don't worry about her, she's pretty good at conning her dad out of what she wants in the mean time.