ALLOWANCE, FIRST STEP TOWARDS SAVINGS!
As the millions of students are waiting for the new academic year, parents will be going through the issue of allowance. While children have endless needs, families are on a budget indicating the experts and say that students need to be educated about the importance of saving.
Prof. Dr. Hakan Yetkiner, Vice Dean of IUE Faculty of Business, stated that parents are faced with a dilemma of ‘how much allowance’ the children should be given. Prof. Dr. Yetkiner said that good management of allowance was a very efficient way to teach children about making a budget. “A well-managed allowance teaches a child ‘purchasing something is giving up on something else’ clearly in time. If the child’s allowance is 5 Turkish Lira, he/she will not be able to buy a soda, cookies, chewing gum, and a bag of marbles at the same time. A choice will have to be made among these. For example, he/she will have to learn by experience that the price of a pack of chewing gum is equivalent to the price of a bag of marbles. Allowance teaches children to save at the same time. The children discover that they can save money to buy something they want very much when their allowance is not sufficient. In other words, they discover to practice economy,” said Yetkiner.
‘Too Much Allowance is Harmful’
Prof. Dr. Yetkiner pointed out that when managed well, allowance was the perfect way to teach a child about the most important concepts of economy, and he said that if the parents met the needs of their children for them, they would not be able to learn how to make a budget. Prof. Dr. Yetkiner stated the following:
“Ill-managed and big amounts of allowance would be harmful rather than helpful. Parents need to seek an answer to the question of ‘How much allowance should be given?’ The answer to that question depends on the income of the family, age of the child, the social environment being lived in, and the spending habits of the family. The most important criteria here would be the income. The school children attend to; their group of friends, entertainment style will be totally different. Therefore, income should be taken as basis when determining the amount of the allowance. The allowance of a 12 year old and a 16 year old should be different regardless the income. As the child gets older the allowance should increase as well”.