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Dave Ramsey, motivator, financial adviser and nationally syndicated radio show host, offers techniques to build a good work ethic in your children as they tackle their household chores:
We don’t do allowances in our household. We teach people instead to put their kids on commission. That is: work, get paid — don’t work, don’t get paid. That’s very real world, and I’ve found 54-year-olds who don’t understand that as well as my four-year-olds have.
No, we don’t run Hitler’s boot camp for personal finance. But when children at various ages attain various levels of competency in household chores, and then I pay them for doing them, it gives me teachable moments with them.
Yes, children need to do some things around the household just because they are part of the family. But if you think paying a child is a bad thing, what you’ve missed out on is the moment for teaching saving, giving and spending wisely, as tied to a work ethic.
Setting Standards
For instance, around our household, we did five dollars a week for five chores. If your room wasn’t cleaned that week or wasn’t kept clean the entire week, you did not get one of those dollars, which meant you had four dollars to work with. If your job was to keep the puppy fed and you didn’t, and Mommy had to feed the puppy so it didn’t starve, then guess what, you’re down to three dollars. And so on.
Hold them accountable — don’t just pay them automatically. If they did not do the chore, do not pay them the money. That’s how it works in the real world. If you try not showing up for work for four or five days, guess what — you’ll quit getting paid.
It’s amazing how we fight through that on payday night … how many stories and excuses there are. It really gives us the opportunity to build character, and to talk about things like procrastination and follow-through and handling details — things that make your children quality citizens, quality employees, quality spouses as they grow older.
Establish a Timeframe
Around the Ramsey household, the chore had to be done daily, throughout the week, for a weekly payday — for instance, carrying your dishes to the dishwasher — actually cleaning them off and putting them in the dishwasher. Now you don’t want your three-year-old carrying the good china. But by the time they hit six, seven, eight years old, they need to be doing this stuff. Mommy is not a maid.Non-Cash Rewards
Everyone, whether a child or an adult, needs some of what I call “at-a-boys” from time to time. For example, if they did a job that maybe wasn’t on the list, the cool thing is you are able to reward them with quality time, not just extra cash. You might let them choose the restaurant we’re going to eat at on Sunday. You might let them choose what we’re going to do as a family for fun this weekend. Just having some extra rights can be a big reward — a big “at-a-boy” — and it doesn’t have to cost you hard dollars every time. You don’t want to tie everything to dollars in this process, because everything of quality in this life is not tied to dollars. As you are spending T-I-M-E with your child, take every opportunity to give them all the “at-a-boys” that are possible.Warning
Don’t make payday a negative time; make it a positive time where there are a few corrections of behavior, a few dockings on the pay — but most of all where you give a lot of praise and extra hugging.I’ll just tell you — around the Ramsey household, this system of rewards is a big deal.
From Dave Ramsey’s "Financial Peace, Jr.: Cool Tools for Training Tomorrow’s Millionaires!" ©2003 The Lampo Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, duplicating or reproducing of these materials or concepts is expressly forbidden.
Dave Ramsey offers life-changing financial advice as host of the nationally syndicated radio program, "
