How much allowance should a 13 -boy get?

I give my 16 year old daughter $400 a week, with that she has to buy her school dinners, bus home from school most days, a cinema trip maybe and several trips out with her friends. Its amazing how far she can make it stretch. She often buys food in the food courts, goes into town, gets a top etc. She can budget and spot a bargain better than me.

GZ is much cheaper than HK so RMB 400 is way too much here(consider a good office worker earns 2000/month). Also are his meals prepaid at school? Work out what he needs and then what he has been spending on average. Also it wouldn't be good to set him apart from his friends by giving him 10 times more or 10 times less than his peers.

Get some input from his friends,as suggested. It's a hard one. I was always on a very short ration, money wise, as a kid. And, while I can budget and save, my mindset is about making do and shortage/potential shortage. Where my husband just got given money when he needed it. He's had to learn saving and budgeting skills from me. But he also has an attitude of plenty, and a sense of self-esteem that he is worth lots of money. Rather than cut his spending, he finds ways to earn more.

.. has any of the parents considered of having your teenager child to work, even if its just day out of a week or two? Not litterally to earn any money, but its a good lesson to appreciate how money works in the Real World. I started working about 14 (PT), and it has deff. given me the benefits in my attitude and character. You never know, your child may want to, a sense of freedom and independence..

I've just managed to get the occasional babysitting job for my daughter, but its very hard to find small jobs for teenagers here, or mums for that matter. In the UK, they can get saturday jobs, or a couple of evenings a week in the supermarket, even as chambermaids in the hotels but here there's nothing.

Ahem... I got 100 RMB/month from my parents when I was 13. Ok, that was 10 years ago and in Beijing, they paid for food, clothing etc, so basically it was only for hangout and savings, but seriously, what kind of hangout does a 13-year-old need? Drink up with the chicks from shool?


When I was a university student my parents gave me 400 RMB/week, but this already included food, clothing and transportation. This is not much less than an average salary in a big Chinese city, so I'd say don't spoil the kid, let him feel that money does not just come when he wants it.


Considering you're in Guangzhou, that it would also include transportation and one meal a day, I still definitely wouldn't give more than 400/week. You could also try giving him once a month, which would teach him how to save money and make ends meet for the rest of the month.

In the US, many parents use the $1/year rule per week. If your son is 13, that would work out to about $13. That is for just his own pocket money. Some parents use the $1.50/year when your son turns his teen years. Out of that I would also suggest that he save/invest 10%, and donate 10%, leaving him 80%. Just because he gets an allowance shouldn't entitle him to spend it all. He has to learn that saving some will get buy him some thing bigger in the future - college is one thing that he could start saving for. How about a car?


Too many of our Echo Boomer generation are WAY spoiled - I am a former High School teacher and the way these kids thought that they DESERVED stuff really disgusted me. Why do they deserve it? They should earn it! I agree with many of the posts that working, even chores around the house is a way to start instilling some serious budgeting and money minded behavior.


There is an author who has mainly focused on getting out of debt - Dave Ramsey. He's been on Oprah, he has his own radio talk show, and he himself has come up with really innovative ways to encourage his own kids to save, budget, and invest. His kids earn money for their own car, and he matches it. So if his kid saves $2000 USD, then he'll match it with another $2000. He has a bonus system - i'm sure if you go on amazon you'll find some books on him and perhaps his method for teaching kids how to be money savvy.


Good luck! i don't think it's easy raising teens in this era (have one of my own) when they think that everything is now, right now, and when I want it. But with some discipline and some care on your part, I'm sure you can raise your son to be financially savvy for now and his future!

I believe pocket money and work at home (like washing the dishes etc.) should not be connected together. A teenager should, to a certain extent, participate in housework whether he gets money for it or not. If he got his pocket money according to the amount of work he had done at home, he'd be expecting money for helping his own family members. You don't want that, do you? Instead of teaching him that he had to work for money, this would teach him to demand money for something he does not deserve any.


Just my two cents. I'm neither a mom, nor a dad, but it wasn't a long time ago when I was a teenager myself, and it's probably not a long time till I become a dad.