While searching for the story idea today, I came across an interesting survey on pocket money been given to the teenagers and young adults. For once, it struck me that this unique yet interesting subject has never been covered on this site before. So, let me take a dig at it.
The important predicament of pocket money must have certainly flashed your mind either during your childhood or as a parent now. Of course, the dilemma is always much more grave if you are a parent. Parents extensively differ in their perspectives of upbringing children in a system of granting pocket money to take care of their petty expenses.
At first, the definite expenses that should be termed as ‘petty’ is pretty much subjective in nature and needs to be well-defined to start with. The second question you need to ask is – what is the extent to which a child be given freedom to spend money which is deemed as pocket money?
While lot of parent’s concerns revolves around promoting unhealthy competition amongst children on the amount of money they get and loss of control on a child’s spending habits, there are also some positive lessons for teenagers such as inculcating money management skills and making tough decision regarding spending desires that offer less value to their lifestyle.
The “Current Pocket Money Trends in Urban India” survey by ASSOCHAM has cited that metropolitan children in the 12-20 age group get as much as Rs.3600 to over Rs.12000 a month of pocket money to spend on apparels, physical appearance, cell phone and other lifestyle products.
Further, the monthly pocket money of teenagers and young adults, in cities like Delhi and Kolkata, have surged whopping 10-fold since 2005. In Ludhiana, 45% of surveyed teenagers get an allowance of Rs.2000 on weekly basis.
While the urban teens spend about 55% of their pocket money on electronic gadgets, almost a quarter of it goes towards watching movies and spending in malls. The remaining 20% of allowance goes towards eating out and food.
The surprising factor over here being that with rising cost of living and soaring inflation, the pocket of teenagers has also grown deeper. Rather than controlling the overall family budget, parents have shown generosity in ensuring that their children maintain their prevailing lifestyle and spending habits.
While giving pocket money to teens is not so bad a concept, you must also ensure that you allocate the right amount of money towards it which is more suitable to your family budget. At the same time, see to it that the sum granted by you is comparable and realistic to meet the day-to-day requirements of your child’s life.
So, are you ensuring that your kid’s pocket spending does not go unaccounted?
Well if the parents can afford it then who’re we to complain :D
Wow 12,000 per month!!! i used to get Rs. 10 per day in late nineties when i was in junior college and it was pretty decent considering there was no Mcds , CCds and multiplexes around.Petrol was Rs. 10 per lit,movie ticket was Rs. 15 for matinee shows at Rahul and mangala.
Nikhil,
Rs.10 per day would translate to somewhere around Rs.300 per month. Coming back to 2011, the minimum pocket money that an urban teen gets is 10 times this amount. Mind you, that’s just a minimum sum and it can go much higher on the higher side.
Anyways… in today’s era, hardly does a local journey by public transportation means like a bus or a train comes at such a paltry sum. Times change and with it even the expenses. But, still, comparatively speaking Rs.12000 pm is not a small amount either.
Do we need a reality check?