An allowance (零用钱）is an important tool for teaching kids how to budget, save and make their own decisions.Children remember and learn from mistakes when their own dollars are lost or spent foolishly.
How large an allowance is proper? Experts say there is not right amount.Actual amounts differ from area to area, and from family to family.To set a right amount of allowance for your child, work up a weekly budget- Allow for entertainment expenditure such as movies and snacks.' Next, include everyday expenses such as lunch money, bus fare, and school supplies.“If you make the child responsible for these 4 bills'，” says Josephine Swanson, a consumer (消费者）specialist，“he or she will learn to budget for necessary expenditure.”
Finally, add some extra money to make saving possible.If you can, keep your child's allowance in line with that of his or her friends.A child whose purchasing (购买)power falls away below his or her friends' can feel left out.
It can be hard, but avoid excusing your children when they make a mistake with their allowance.When Brooke Stephens was ten and growing up in Jacksonville, her mother gave her $5 a week, 1 - 75 of which was for bus fare and lunch.“If you lose your money，”Brooke's mother told her，“you walk home.”One week the girl spent all her allowance in a candy store； then she called home for a ride.“ Mom made me walk home， ” recalled Stephens，now a financial (财务）planner in Brooklyn.“At first I was angry.But I finally realized that she was trying to teach me an important lesson.”
Experts advise that an allowance should not be tied directly to a child's daily chores.Kids should help around the house not because they get paid for it but because they share responsibilities as members of a family.You might, however, pay a child for doing extra jobs at home.That can develop his or her initiative (主动性).
【小题1】What is the passage mainly about?| A．How to work up a budget. |
| B．How to teach children to save money. |
| C．How to teach children to manage money matters. |
| D．How Lo develop the initiative of teenage children. |
| A．The act of spending money. |
| B．An organized journey. |
| C．Belief about the future. |
| D．Something extremely expensive. |
| A．More than the amount of the kid's fellows. |
| B．Not less than the amount of the kid's fellows. |
| C．Almost equal amount with kids in other areas. |
| D．Almost equal amount with kids in other schools. |
| A．To show Brooke's parents are both too mean. |
| B．To suggest parents be strict on kids' allowance. |
| C．To question the opinions of the experts. |
| D．To explain why allowance is necessary for kids. |
