Watch: Is R10 000 pocket money normal? Experts say no

Pocket money is dividing dinner tables across South Africa this week, after a Radio 2000 caller asked listeners to settle whether R10 000 a month is a reasonable allowance for a 14-year-old.

On the station’s Conversation Corner segment, a mother explained that her own children only get pocket money when their chores are done; no chores, no cash. ‘I don’t compromise when it comes to that, and they know it,’ she said.

@radio2000_za #ConversationCorner Is R10 000 a month in pocket money age appropriate for a 14 year old? #BetterTogether #Radio2000 ♬ original sound – Radio2000_ZA

Then came the number that stopped the conversation in its tracks: a family she knows apparently pays their teenager R10 000 a month, split evenly between two working parents.

‘I still feel it’s way too much money to give to a 14-year-old,’ she said, asking other parents where they draw the line.

Pocket money

Funny enough, the term didn’t always mean a kid’s allowance. Back in the 1600s, ‘pocket money’ just meant small cash anyone carried around for daily spending, no age requirement attached, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

It only became a parenting thing in the 1800s, once formal schooling and the modern idea of childhood took hold and families started setting aside money specifically for their kids instead of just putting them to work. So in a strange way, this whole R10 000 debate is part of a 400-year-old tradition; we’ve just added a lot more zeros.

It was never about the money

The debate found an unlikely voice: someone who once received even more. ‘Back when I was in matric, I was getting R30 000 a month in pocket money,’ the anonymous commenter wrote, explaining that both parents were established professionals who valued education, exposure and independence, car included.

Their conclusion: ‘The real question isn’t the amount. It’s whether the child understands the value of money, responsibility and privilege.’ Give a teenager R500 or R50 000, they added, and without financial discipline, both amounts disappear just as fast.

How the number stacks up

Weighed against local incomes, the scale becomes obvious. Stats SA’s Income & Expenditure Survey found the average South African household earns R204 359 a year, about R17 030 a month, while the median household brings in closer to R7 891 a month. That means the R10 000 in question is worth more than what half of South African households earn in total, before groceries, rent or transport even come into it.

For context, teenagers in the UK typically get £10 to £15 a week, roughly R1 400 a month at current exchange rates, nowhere near the number that got South Africans talking.

Locally, financial literacy experts say the amount matters less than the habit behind it. Mariné van Brakel, deputy CEO of RCS, says money lessons are built through everyday moments, not lump sums.

‘It’s not about sitting them down for a lesson,’ she said on HOT Business with Jeremy Maggs, pointing instead to grocery trips and birthday budgets as where financial habits actually form.

That said, anonymous jokingly put an ad out for an adult adoption saying, ‘ If any parents are looking to adopt a fully grown adult who already has a job, my applications are open.’