The Annual Pocket Money Report: Kids received a record £273 pocket money in 2019, and saved 38% of it.

Do you give your children pocket money?

Our girls are almost eight years old and we give them £1 a week in pocket money. Well, I say we give them £1 a week pocket money, but that’s only when we, and them, remember!

Our girls don’t seem to be too bothered about whether or not they get pocket money. If we forget, so do they, but I do think it’s a good thing to give them so that they can learn the value of money and how it works,

RoosterMoney, the pocket money app, has recently revealed that kids received a new high of £273 pocket money (£5.25 a week) last year, up 7.5% from 2018, and encouragingly they saved 38% of it. This is in stark contrast to the latest statistics showing adults are only managing to save 6.8% of their income.*

Children are picking up lasting money habits as young as 7 years old**, and RoosterMoney is showing that a strong pocket money routine is a great way to build positive money habits early on…

• 74% of parents gave regular pocket money last year
• Average weekly allowance is £5.25 (£273 a year), up 7.5% from £254 in 2018
• Kids received £49in cash gifts this Christmas
• Most lucrative chores are ‘Mowing the lawn’, ‘Washing the car’ & ‘Gardening’
• Most popular things to save for are Lego Sets, Phones & Nintendo Switch
• Of all money earned, average saved is 38%

Top things to SAVE for in 2019:

1. Lego Sets (-)

2. Phones (-) 

3. Nintendo Switch (+1)

4. Holiday Money (-1)

5. Books & Magazines (-)

6. Bikes (+2)

7. Pokemon (new entry)

8. Playstation (+2)

9. Tablets (-)

10. Xbox (-4)

Top things to SPEND on in 2019:

1. Books & Magazines (+1)

2. Sweets (-1)

3. Lego (-)

4. Presents (-)

5. Roblox (+5, highest climber)

6. Fortnite (new entry)

7. Playstation (new entry)

8. Xbox (-3)

9. Pokemon (-2)

10. Apps (-4)

Top EARNING chores of 2019:

1. Mowing the lawn, £2.86

2. Washing the car, £2.62

3. Gardening, £2.08

4. Washing windows, £1.53

5. Cleaning bathroom, £1.28

6. Cleaning kitchen, £0.99

7. Hoovering, £0.98

8. Dusting, £0.98

9. Helping make dinner, £0.93

10. Clean bedroom, £0.92

I should add that our girls don’t do chores in exchange for pocket money, but perhaps I should start to encourage this? What do you think? If you give your children pocket money, is it in exchange for them doing chores?

It was also interesting to learn that the most entrepreneurial age group is 9 year olds – boosting their income by selling old games and books, averaging £22.56 per sale.

You can read Rooster Money’s top tips on teaching kids about money here.

*https://themoneycharity.org.uk/media/December-2019-Money-Statistics.pdf

**https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/corporate/adult-money-habits-are-set-by-the-age-of-seven-years-old-shows-new-study

All other data taken from the Pocket Money Index, sampling 25,000 RoosterMoney users, covering 01/01/19 to 01/01/20.