<p>My d doesn’t spend much on her hair and she does her own nails but she has a weakness for good sushi. I give her a hundred dollars a week for spending money. What she doesn’t spend she saves to travel with. She is enjoying college much more than I did.
If I could only go back in time and send myself some spending money. I have a lot now but I had nothing then. I worked so hard and I never enjoyed sports or plays or anything else because I worked so much in addition to full time classes. How much it would have meant to me to have been able to open an envelope from home with a few unexpected dollars and it never happened. If it had happened, I would remember my joy today and the person who gave it to me these thirty years later. Now, while I think about it, I’m going to stick a check in the mail for my d to take a date out for Chinese New Year!</p>
<p>My son’s college, when working up a financial aid package each year, expects a certain amount contributed from summer earnings. We expect our son to contribute that amount. Last year it was about 75% of his summer income. After that it’s his money to do what he wants with.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to a FAFSA-only school, so student contribution from summer earnings is not part of the package. We decided that she would contribute the same percentage of her summer income as her brother has to. She earns less than he does, but at least it seems proportional this way.</p>
<p>Other than that, we have never required our kids to do anything in particular with their money. We have never given them money in any regular way (i.e., allowance) while they were growing up, and we don’t send them spending money at college. Both have on-campus jobs, and are very sensible about spending. Both had to save up to buy their own laptops and other large expenses.</p>
<p>^^my son would wish you would adopt him. He’d love $100 a week spending money out of the blue. Maybe he’ll do more for his kids! Anyway, we do send some “I love you money” every now and then.</p>
<p>I would send little gift amounts now and then if we could. Unfortunately, our “I love you money” has to go toward tuition. :(</p>
<p>My parents either couldn’t, or didn’t, even do that… so I think my kids are rolling in clover.</p>
<p>At what age did you expect your kids to start working and paying for things on their own?</p>
<p>^^for my parents, I was 14 when I was expected to buy my own clothing/any extras I wanted. I pay for my cell phone plus the bill for it, I paid for my netbook(for debate) and will be buying my laptop for college. </p>
<p>My parents provide food and shelter…i basically do the rest</p>
<p>Thanks Rocket!</p>
<p>I have a son who is recently 14 & I didn’t know if it was too early. Hopefully he can find a summer job given the economy.</p>
<p>Longhaul, my son was 17 when he got his first job, my daughter was 16. Once they were earning we mostly expected them to pay for their own stuff. Well, not for food they eat here in the house, or basic clothing necessities like replacing worn out shoes or blue jeans – but they pay for all extras, and they have to save up for their big-ticket items.</p>
<p>Wow, RocketLousie, that’s young! My daughter wanted to work that young, but just couldn’t find a job until she turned 16.</p>
<p>Both kids are away at college now, but they have summer jobs that are here for them each year when they come home, and on campus jobs that also are there for them when they’re at school. That’s been a really great thing for them in these times when finding work can be so difficult, especially in the small town area where we live.</p>
<p>^^where I live there are ALOT of places that hire 14 year olds, otherwise it would have been much harder to find a job that young</p>
<p>Saving and spending:</p>
<p>I keep reading that if a student has money saved in his name, that money will be counted against financial aid. If this is correct, it would be better for parents to ask their kids to use their earnings for specific purchases such as clothes or entertainment, rather than having the savings count against finaid. What was the experience of parents whose kids received finaid?</p>
<p>I think 14 years olds in Michigan are pretty much restricted to farm work (by law), and if you live in an urban area that pretty much pushes you out of that.</p>
<p>Ever since we’ve given them allowance, the boys have been given “half in the hand” and the other half goes in the bank. Now that they both earn money from part-time jobs – but their expenses and what we expect from them are greater – I put a third of their allowance in the bank and give the rest to them. The money they earn from working is theirs to do with what they want, but I do ask when they get a fat paycheck (or lots of birthday money), “How much of that do you want me to put in the bank?” 
I’ve never had them say “Nothing.” Ds1 used a big chunk of his savings to pay for a trip to Spain last spring break; ds2 pays a portion of his fancy summer camp every year.</p>
<p>Both my kids have worked since they were 13 in seasonal jobs, ref’ing/umpiring youth sports events. Ds2 has made as much as $150 in one weekend.</p>
<p>^Apparently ref’ing is a relatively lucrative job for teenagers. My friend earns around $125 every other weekend or so.</p>
<p>Yep, I always recommend it to people looking for jobs for their young kids. It’s seasonal, so that’s a bummer, but how many other (legal) ways can a young teen earn that much dough on the weekend? </p>
<p>Ds1 also has just started doing private tutoring. He’s working with one girl right now, and that’s enough for gas money, but he’s considering taking on a second client. He finally gets how much freedom his own pocket money can buy!</p>
<p>One of my son’s friends runs a Chinese take-out across the street from the high school. I learned recently that he occasionally delivers.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids are big on spending money so I’ve never made rules. The first summer my son made a lot of money interning I suggested he put some of it in a Roth IRA, which he did.</p>
<p>Marite, it’s true that savings in the kid’s name can potentially affect financial aid. How much effect it has depends on the amount in savings, obviously. If a kid isn’t qualifying for financial aid in the first place though, obviously it won’t matter. Or if they just have a couple hundred dollars or something like that, it might matter only if they’re right on the cusp of a need-threshold number, but that would be a limited number of kids. (I think mine might have been one of them this year, though! If I’d realized how razor close she’d end up to the Pell cutoff, I would have advised her to go out and spend that money.)</p>
<p>It all comes down to what your family financial situation is for college. With my college son, he knew that we were getting squeezed financially, and he chose an expensive option. Not the most expensive, but he could have gone much less expensively with a state school or picking a school with more generous scholarships. But he liked his choice the best. He committed to working as much as he could, and saving a nice piece of his earning to put towards his college. He made quite a bit this summer, and had also worked second semester at college, along with jobs during school breaks. However, this year, he was offered a research position and internship that pays far less than what he was making and takes up enough time that he cannot take an additional job. After reviewing the situation, we decided with him that the time he is spending in the position is worth the financial hit to us. In fact, he will be staying at college this summer, and will not be saving anything towards his costs junior year. He is hoping to get a grant, but that is up in the air. We’ve decided that it is the best use of our money and his time.</p>
<p>If he had wanted to spend the summer on the shore lifeguarding and living with friends, spending what he earned, we would have reminded him that we are sacrificing financially, and to rethink his priorities. It is all a matter of trade offs. A family that absolutely could not squeeze out the additional money should make a different decision than ours.</p>
<p>When S was little, we gave him an allowance that was divided equally between savings, charity/causes, and spending money. (This was suggested to me by a friend. The system has a name, but I can’t recall it.) He had three labeled containers, amongst which he divided his dollars. Periodically, we deposited his savings in the bank and he chose a charity/cause to which to donate.</p>
<p>I always liked that system.</p>
<p>But it is impossible, IMHO to tell a person who is earning their own money what to do with it, although one can certainly make it clear what one will and will not fund–leaving it up to them to do the math.</p>
<p>I think there are many sound ideas here, and I think it’s healthy for the students to have some “skin in the game.” However, am I the only one for whom the student’s contribution (through earnings, loans, etc.) will be necessary for actual college expenses like tuition, etc. and not just spending money? In our case, most of the schools S is accepted to, even with merit aid, will be over $30K a year. We are prepared to spend $24K a year, despite the stupid EFC calculations, which are unrealistic. So we’ve told our son to factor in the need for him to contribute whatever exceeds that amount, including spending money, etc. But I don’t see him really “owning” this responsibility so far; while he’s working/reffing, he doesn’t appear to make the connection between these current dollars and the need for college funds and spending money…altough I’ve told him 'till I blue in the face. How can I get him to take this more seriously?</p>