How Much Allowance Is Too Much?
(A Dad of 4 on the $37 Headline)

Every year a new headline lands saying the average kid pulls in $37 a week, and every year it makes some parent look at their own kid and quietly wonder if they have this wrong. It made me check my own house, where the paid-jobs cap is about $10. So, how much allowance is too much?

There is no universal dollar cap, but there is a gut check. Most kids get around $19 a week, according to T. Rowe Price's Parents, Kids & Money Survey, and the widely shared $37 figure is an all-ages average skewed upward by older teens. If your child sits well above the by-age norm, spends it within a day, and never has to wait or save for anything, the amount is likely too much, whatever the number happens to be.

What's the average allowance, and what counts as "too much"?

"Too much" is less about crossing a threshold and more about being far off the norm with nothing to show for it, so the averages give you the goalposts. T. Rowe Price's survey puts the mean around $19 a week, with about one in seven parents (14%) handing over $51 or more. The famous $37 comes from a 2025 Wells Fargo study and is an all-ages average pulled up by teenagers, not a per-kid target. If you want the full breakdown by age, I laid it out in how much allowance to give kids by age. Here is the quick version to measure against.

Benchmark	Weekly amount
Typical average (T. Rowe Price)	~$19
Headline average (Wells Fargo, all ages)	$37
$1-per-year-of-age rule	Age in dollars (10yo = $10)
Likely too much	Well over your kid's by-age range, with no saving

3 signs you're paying your kid too much

What the money does once it lands tells you more than the size of the number. Three signs tend to show up over and over:

• It's gone in a day, on nothing they can name later. Money that arrives easily gets spent like it arrived easily.
• They never have to wait, save, or choose. If every want is covered before they feel the gap, the allowance is doing their budgeting for them.
• It drifted past what you meant it to cover. If you started it for a weekly treat and it now funds everything, the number outran its job.

None of those is about the exact amount. A kid who saves half of a big allowance for a real goal is fine; a kid who blows through a small one on impulse buys is the one to watch. The number is just the easiest thing to measure, which is why parents fixate on it.

What overpaying actually costs (it isn't the money)

The real cost of overpaying is not your weekly budget, it is that your kid never practices waiting. Money that always shows up, in amounts big enough to cover any want, quietly removes the one thing an allowance is supposed to build: the pause between wanting a thing and having it. The classic Stanford marshmallow studies tied a child's ability to delay gratification to better outcomes later on, though newer replications found the effect smaller once you account for a family's circumstances. Take the strong version with a grain of salt. The ordinary version still holds in any kitchen: a kid who has to save three weeks for something values it differently than a kid who can buy it on a Tuesday. Overpay, and you buy that lesson away without meaning to.

How to dial it back without a fight

You lower an allowance the way you would change any house rule: out in the open, and tied to a reason, rather than quietly cutting the number and hoping nobody notices. Anchor to the by-age range instead of the headline. Tie the money to a job and to how well it is done, so a half-finished one pays less than a finished one. In our house the paid-jobs cap is about $10 a week and every dollar is earned. Split whatever they make into Save, Spend, and Give, so some of it has to sit and wait by design. Then say the change out loud: here is the new number, here is what it is meant to cover. A cut, like a raise, means far more when the kid can see the rule behind it.

Keeping the number honest

Whatever number you land on, the hard part is not choosing it. It is following through every week: tracking who earned what, what got saved, and what is still owed, without all of it living in your head. I ran ours on a spreadsheet for too long before I built GrowTide to handle the earning, saving, and payouts so the amount I picked actually gets followed through. If you want to see how that loop works, here is how it works. Whatever tool you use, the rule is the same: pick the amount on purpose, say what it's for, and let the system keep it honest instead of your memory.

Vince is a dad of four, holds a Master's in Finance, and is the founder of GrowTide — a family chore and rewards app built by a parent who needed it to actually work.

This post is one parent's experience, not professional parenting, financial, or psychological advice. Every family is different, and what's right in your house is a call only you can make.

Frequently asked questions

How much allowance is too much?

There is no single cap, but most kids get around $19 a week per T. Rowe Price, and the often-quoted $37 average is skewed by older teens. If your child is well above the typical amount for their age, spends it within a day, and never has to wait or save, the allowance is probably too much.

What is the average allowance for kids in 2025?

Roughly $19 a week in T. Rowe Price's Parents, Kids & Money Survey, though a 2025 Wells Fargo study put the all-ages average at $37, a figure pulled upward by older teens. By-age numbers are lower, closer to $6 to $10 a week for younger kids.

What are the signs I'm giving my kid too much allowance?

The money is gone within a day on things they cannot name later, they never have to wait or save for what they want, and the amount has drifted past what you originally meant it to cover. The dollar figure matters less than what the money does once it lands.

How do I lower my kid's allowance without a fight?

Name the change instead of quietly cutting it, tie the amount to a job and how well it is done, and split what they earn into save, spend, and give so some of it has to wait. Then say the new number out loud and what it is meant to cover.

Does a bigger allowance make kids worse with money?

Not the amount by itself, but money that always arrives in amounts big enough to cover any want removes the practice of waiting and saving. A kid who has to save for something values it differently than one who can buy it the same day.