Teaching kids about money: New Zealander Hannah Koumakis says she was paid $200 in pocket money

A former nanny says she and her two older sisters were given $200 each in pocket money every month – but they had to earn it and weren’t allowed to spend it all at once.

From the age of eight, Hannah Koumakis, from New Zealand, was rewarded the pocket money for completing daily chores around the house and had to divide the funds into four separate categories – long-term and short-term savings, spending and tithe for the local church. 

The 23-year-old said the money would’ve been equivalent to $150 ‘back in the day’ due to inflation and difference in cost of living today. 

‘At the age of eight my parents decided ‘you know what we want to teach out kids how to be really good with money’,’ Hannah said in a TikTok video.

‘Instead of buying us stuff that we wanted, they were going to teach us how we can do it. We had daily chores.’

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‘We got given $200 pocket money, but this was $150 back in the day, so let’s just use $150. We didn’t just get $150 per month to SPEND. No. We had to be taught the power of saving,’ Hannah continued. 

She detailed how they each had to set aside 30 per cent of the money for long-term savings, 30 per cent for short-term savings, 10 per cent for tithe (money put towards the local church) and the remaining 30 per cent was for spending.

Hannah explained the long-term saving fund was essentially money to go towards a house.

‘From the age of eight I was saving for my first house and I got SO excited watching it grow in my bank account,’ she said.  

‘We’re Christian and we believe in paying tithe, so we also had to pay 10 per cent of our income to tithe – that gives us 60 per cent left.

But they still didn’t get to use the entire amount remaining.

‘We had to save another 30 per cent for our short-term savings – anything to do with buying a big-ticket item, so a car or laptop.’ 

The remaining 30 per cent was allocated towards their spending – but there’s a catch. 

‘Bare in mind we had to buy everything – we had to buy our clothes. If we needed a new top, we had to buy it ourselves,’ Hannah said. 

‘Fortunately I was the third child so I had a lot of hand-me-downs but my sisters decided to make a bit of money from me so they would sell me their clothes.

‘Whenever we wanted a new Barbie doll, we would never go up to our parents and nag them, we would literally have to save it [for] ourselves.

‘My parents went from being, “No you can’t buy this” to “Yes, you can buy this, but do you have enough money?”‘

Besides the spending account, Hannah and her sisters weren’t allowed to touch the other funds. 

‘This means that from the age of eight I was literally looking forward to sales and making sure that I get more bang for my buck,’ she said. 

The three siblings were paid up until the age of 13 then started making money themselves from casual or part-time jobs. 

Looking back Hannah dubbed the teaching method as the ‘best system ever’ because it taught her so much about money. 

‘Now I really understand and have a great appreciation for money,’ she said. 

To keep track of her finances she kept a log book and took note of anything she bought and when. 

The detailed TikTok video has since been viewed more than two million times with thousands praising Hannah’s parents for the clever method. 

‘LOVE THIS! wish I had been this educated,’ one person wrote, another said: ‘Your parents are brilliant! They should teach a class for other parents, or write a book!!! Wow!’

But some commented on how privileged Hannah and her sisters were to receive such a high amount of money every month. 

‘My parents made $1000 a month imagine if they had to give my sister and I 200 haha,’ one person commented. 

Another said: ‘Great idea but most parents don’t have 150 to spend on food so you were lucky enough to have parents that could afford you that lesson.’