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When parents and grandparents think back to their very first jobs, perhaps a paper round or a stint at babysitting spring to mind.
But nowadays, budding young entrepreneurs are turning their skills to online selling, or even influencing, to top up their pocket money.
Four in 10 (38%) children have a “side hustle” – including a third (33%) of younger children aged six to nine – according to new research for Starling Bank among 2,000 parents of children aged six to 16.
More than six in 10 (61%) parents say their kids will even negotiate how much they should get paid for doing specific tasks.
And the younger generation are proving to be very successful at honing their negotiating skills – on average, being able to barter around a third (34%) more than their parents had originally been willing to hand over.
Getting a good school report, looking after their siblings, washing the car, helping out in the garden, doing their homework, good behaviour and walking the dog are all popular ways for children to earn extra cash from their parents, the study found.
Boys are slightly more successful at negotiating extra money from their parents for tasks – 63% have previously been able to, versus 59% of girls.
Starling Bank’s family finance expert Rachel Kerrone says: “Children seem to be smarter than ever with money.”
The research also indicates that kids are around three times as likely to sell items online than they are to have a traditional paper round.
Only around 4% of kids have a paper round, while one in eight (12%) sell items online.
Meanwhile, youngsters are just as likely to earn money doing online surveys (6%) as they are to earn cash from babysitting (6%), while for 3%, being an online influencer is something that they aspire to.
The survey also indicates the money made from turning skills into cash soon adds up, with side hustles making them around £474 per year on average.
On top of this, those who receive pocket money are receiving £5.91 per week typically.
With families needing to balance their budgets, the research also found that children with siblings receive less pocket money typically.
Parents with one child were found to give them £6.25 per week on average – but among those with two children, the amount drops to £5.43.
Older parents also give more money on average – although they will also be more likely to have older children.
Parents aged 35 to 44 give their children £5.45 per week on average.
This increases to £6.18 for those aged 45 to 54 and again to £7.49 for those aged 55-plus.
While some children will receive pocket money to simply spend on things they want, the impacts of the financial squeeze on families mean this isn’t always the case.
More than a fifth (21%) of parents say their children get pocket money to cover essentials such as shoes, clothes and books.
Nearly three in 10 (28%) hard-pressed parents also say that the amount of pocket money they give can fluctuate, depending on their own financial situation.
And while cash use has generally been on the decline, research also found that many children still receive their pocket money in the traditional way, as coins and banknotes.
More than half (55%) of kids receive their pocket money as cash, according to Starling Bank, which offers a debit card and app for kids called Starling Kite.
However, by the time youngsters reach the teenage years, at 13 to 16 years old, it is more common for the money to be paid into a bank account than given as cash. This could be a smart move if they have an account which pays interest, rather than just leaving the money languishing in a piggy bank.
Negotiating money matters with children isn’t always easy, but, depending on the age of the child, parents can explain how the family has an overall budget that they need to stick to.
For some children, this could include parents talking about the prices of items during trips to the supermarket and their reasoning behind buying some and putting others back on the shelf.
Parents can also help children to set their own savings goals and share the anticipation and excitement as they track their progress towards them, whether it’s by recording it on a wall chart or by watching the account balance move up each week in an app.
This will help to keep kids engaged as they see themselves moving further towards their goal.
It could also be worthwhile discussing with children whether they want to save all their pocket money towards a particular goal, or whether they would prefer to have some to spend now and some to save.
Parents can also help children to work out how much of their money they would need to save each week to reach a goal within a certain time period.
For older children, parents could also consider giving them more of a taste of responsibility by giving them a bigger weekly or monthly allowance but expecting this to cover some essential items such as clothing.
This may partly depend on the maturity of the child though, as well as parents’ own budgets.
After all, parents could get an unpleasant surprise if they’re expecting their children to make their money last but find out that they’ve blown the lot on the latest trainers.
