I decided to start a weekly allowance for both of my kids after they had their 5th birthday. I basically decided to keep it simple. I just give them $1 for each year of age ($5 for my 5-year-old, $9 for my 9-year-old).
Depending on how well I’m doing financially on down the road, I might increase the amounts for both kids once they reach a certain age. Maybe something like this:
| Age | Allowance |
| 1 thru 9 | $1 for every age year |
| 10 thru 16 | $1 per age + $5 |
| 16 thru 18/21 | $1 per age + $10 |
So: if my son were 12, then he would get $17 weekly.
if he were 17, then he would get $27 weekly.
I marked “18/21” in the table above, because I haven’t decided yet when to stop providing an allowance to my kids. I might also increase it to $50 once they start college. I’m not sure, It’s still up in the air on that one too.
Update: My son is now 11 years old as of 2012, but I forgot about the extra five dollars I was going to give him. Quite honestly though, money has been tight for me lately, so I might delay that increase until he is 13, 14 or 15. At Age 16, I will make sure he gets the extra $5 plus his age.
Hope you enjoyed my model,
-MR