Research shows most Australian kids are getting handed pocket money for nothing.

56 per cent of children don’t lift a finger to earn their money, an exclusive News Corp survey of more than 1200 parents has found, shares Herald Sun.

About 30 per cent of children are under the illusion money comes from somewhere other than hard work — including parents, the bank or even the supermarket.

But the Barefoot Investor, Scott Pape, believes the secret to success when teaching kids about money is making sure they handle physical cash.

The rise in “tap and go” at the checkout has made it tougher for kids to understand; his method of using jam jars to save their money, then later graduating to accounts, makes it real.

“It’s more important now with money becoming invisible so for me using jam jars makes sense,” Pape said.

“They want to see the money and have a direct link between work and the money piling up.”

“A lot of parents are sporadic with their pocket money, in my view kids need to do jobs and if they don’t do the jobs they don’t get paid,” Pape said.

“It’s really easy to do, it doesn’t matter how much you pay them, for some families it could be a dollar per age per week, so $6 per week for a six-year-old.”

The survey also showed 82 per cent of parents believe kids should be taught about money at school and in the home, but about half are not happy with the financial education kids are getting at school.

Are your children expected to do chores to earn their pocket money?

Share your comments below

  • Mine get pocket money but only when they do their chores for the week.


  • My kids loved ‘helping’ mum and it was even better if they got paid for doing so. They learned to save up for what they wanted because we didn’t always have the money to buy those things. The best saver in my children is still a very canny person with their money and the others are all good too.


  • How else will they learn the value of money if you just hand it to them? Maybe Im a harsh mum, but when my son is old enough he will be doing chores to earn it!


  • My 4 year old works for his pocket money. He understands that if he doesn’t do his tasks he doesn’t get paid.


  • My kids work for their money. I don’t have enough to just hand it out so they get paid for work like I do. However looking after their pets is a must do and not a job neither is washing your own dishes. Jobs are the things I have to do. If they do those they get money. They also know there is no point asking for stuff at the shop unless you have worked and brought your own money.


  • Pocket money is never really for nothing. My kids (2 and just turned 5) get pocket money weekly. Mr 2 gets $2 and miss 5 gets $4. From that pocket money mr 2 put $1 in the bank each week and $1 into his money box. Miss 5 banks $1 a week, $1.50 goes into her money box to buy birthday and Christmas presents for the family and $1.50 goes into her purse which, like her brother, she can use to spend on herself every school holidays. They may not be cleaning the house to earn their pocket money but they are learning about responsible money handling. Some needs to be kept long term, some needs to be saved and budgeted and some needs to be spent on yourself. We count how much money they have and we look for something within their price range. We also look at the number of people they need to buy presents for and how much they can spend on each person (doesn’t need to be equal amounts)


  • I don’t believe in paying anyone to do the things they should be doing anyway such as tidying their room or picking up after themselves. A lot of children in NSW are picking up bottles for the 10 cent refund now and this has become their pocket money


  • My kids didn’t get pocket money. I tried the work for money thing, was too much work for me to get them to work! As a teen, mum and dad paid me pocket money. $7.50 from mum for doing all the housework and $10 a week for feeding the dark animals every day. My sister got $7.50 from mum for nothing……


  • Like anything you need to teach your kids about it. You get money by working for it.


  • My 9 yr old gets $10 a week and that goes on to a prepaid Visa card (Spriggy Card) and he has lost of chores that need to get done to earn this, he know if he want something special he need to save up for it, but that money is his to do with what he wants…..because when it is gone ther is no more and he understands that….


  • My kids get a few $ just because mostly I make them earn their money if they want extra.


  • Our plan is to pay for extra chores, not just the usual putting stuff away, taking dishes to the sink etc. Things like washing the car/windows, mowing the lawn etc are things we may pay for in the future.


  • When my boys were growing up they had designated jobs they had to do. Once a week they were given their pocket money and had the choice of either banking it or spending it.


  • Yes, that was the plan. But as he started VCE his chores started to drop whilst he was still being given money. We’re revisiting now that VCE is done.


  • Yes, my daughter gets paid $10 a fortnight – she has to make her bed, tidy up and clean the skirting boards for me. She’s turning 6 next month. I always had to do chores growing up to earn money and I think that it’s good for kids to learn this concept.


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