Did your kids have money allowance?

Want your kids to be smart with money? The first step is the hardest: you’ve got to give them some of the green stuff to manage.

An allowance gives parents the opportunity to teach money skills. And it works because it’s relevant to kids, says Lynne Strang, vice president of communications for the American Financial Services Association Education Foundation. “You’re talking about their own money versus someone else’s money,” she says.

Here are seven steps to giving an allowance:

1. Decide whether the allowance will be conditional.

Some parents tie an allowance to completing specific, regular chores, like making the bed, taking out trash or maintaining a neat room. Others don’t like the idea, fearing that—if the child doesn’t want to work—he or she will just forgo the allowance to opt out of helping around the house.

So should an allowance be tied to performing certain jobs?

“I think we fall somewhere in between,” Strang says of her group. “It’s a good idea that kids are expected to have certain core responsibilities.”

Tying an allowance to completing certain regular household chores “is a really bad idea,” says Joline Godfrey, author of “Raising Financially Fit Kids.” “An allowance is not a salary or entitlement. It’s a tool.”

At the same time, if kids do something extra (cleaning out the garage or washing the car), “it makes sense that the parent would pay for jobs that go above and beyond,” Strang says.

If you do decide to assign chores, you’ll want a simple way to keep track of who is doing what each week, says Strang. If kids need some structure or a visual reminder, keep the chores chart in a prominent place, where you and they see it regularly.

Your ultimate goal? Encourage the child to keep track of it on his or her own, says Godfrey. Because, she says, “unless you find a way to put some responsibility on the kids, it’s exhausting.”

2. Set an amount.

“This is a personal decision” that varies from family to family, Strang says.

Some factors to consider: How old is the child? What obligations do you want the child to manage (e.g., school lunches, activity fees)? Realistically speaking, how much money does the child need for those items? And how much discretionary money do you want left?

3. Establish a regular pay day.

How often do you want to pay an allowance? For smaller kids, paying a weekly allowance usually works fine. For high schoolers, consider a monthly plan, says Strang. It more closely mirrors the challenges they’ll face in adulthood, namely budgeting a set amount of money across a month.

It also gives you an excuse to sit down with them and analyze monthly expenses and income, she says.

4. Start small with young kids.

Don’t be afraid to say “this is your lunch money budget” or “this is your comic book budget,” says Godfrey. “Start with something concrete and real that can be understood,” she says. And when the child masters that, you can add to his or her financial responsibilities.

YOu can contunue read here. Because i feel you can know more about your kids and how to control their allowance.

Ps: I hope, when i have kids, they will never ask about money. All money is mine. Haha!