Parents giving kids a regular allowance is something of a rite of passage. According to a Wells Fargo study published last year, 71% of parents give kids some allowance, with an average amount of $37 a week. Yet simply handing out cash could become passe as a suite of allowance technology is letting parents get creative with how they give their kids cash.
“Parents are giving kids allowances via checking accounts and even in some cases, prepaid debit cards,” said Michael Waters, an author and journalist who wrote about allowance for The Atlantic. “And there's also this segment of apps like Greenlight [a sponsor of some Marketplace programming], which parents can put their kids’ allowance into and then sort of encourage their kids to do much more with these allowances than we would have seen in recent history.”
“Marketplace” host Reema Khrais spoke to Waters about the story, including the history of allowance and why the jury is out on how effective it is as a teaching tool.
To listen, use the media player above.
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