Commission Chart

When Kevin and I started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, there was a section in one of the lessons that briefly touched on teaching your children about money. We have talked a lot about this the last few years, and we decided to take Dave's approach on the issue. His approach quickly explained: If they do the work, at the end of the week, they get paid for it. If they don't do the work, they don't get paid. He said we could start this as early as age 3. Kevin and I agreed on 3 "jobs" we could ask Hayden to do. Now obviously, as he gets older, we'll ask him to do more work, but for more money. Right now, we ask him to:

1. Put away his toys before he goes to bed.
2. Take out the trash (once a week) in the hall bathroom and help me clean a couple days. (Which usually consist of me giving him a wet rag and asking him to wipe any spots he sees off the floor - and he LOVES doing it!)
   
3. Put his clothes in the laundry basket and his shoes in his shoe basket before he goes to bed.

If he does all 3 things everyday, on Friday he gets paid $3 (in quarters). He has money jars labeled "Spend", "Save", & "Give", and he puts $1 in each jar. Getting paid is like the highlight of the week for him! He loves seeing all those quarters laid out in front of him. He is so proud of himself. We just started week 3 today.

Now there are things we expect him to do and not get paid for. We are teaching him to take his plate to the sink when he is done with dinner. We also are teaching him, if he makes a mess, he needs to clean it up. You get the idea. He's not going to get paid for doing things we just expect him to do. I want jobs 1 & 3 to be something he just does - so those will be the first things to get replaced as he gets a bit older.

Sometimes before we leave for an errand during the day, he'll say, "Oh I have to pick up all my toys so I can get a smiley for that". I feel like this money lesson we're trying to teach him is also teaching him how to be a better listener. I usually remind him just once or twice about picking up his shoes, or putting away his toys, and he's all over it. He is very anxious to get his smiley faces at night. He goes to bed happy and proud of himself for his hard work.