Kim Isn’t Giving Daughter a Dime – Should She?

Photo by Corbis

Kanye West has bragged that his daughter, North, is “in a position of a level of royalty like the prince and princess in London.” But surprisingly, mom Kim Kardashian just revealed she isn’t about to treat her child like an aristocrat. “She will have to work for what she wants,” the reality star – who raked in $28 million between June 2013 and 2014 alone – declared to the London Standard’s ES Magazine in a new interview. “I was saying that earlier to my friends, ‘I wonder what [North’s] first job is gonna be.’ And they were like, ‘What? She’s gonna have a job?’ And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Of course she is.’”

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The E! star, 34, designer, author and video game icon (seriously!) explained that she knows the value of hard work and wants her 16 month old to learn that lesson too. “We didn’t get anything [from our parents], we had to get a job if we wanted it,” she shared. “So I was working in a clothing store, and I would save and save.”

As a young girl, Kardashian had huge determination. “I saved up for this Dolce & Gabbana dress I really wanted, or like in high school these Prada shoes that my parents wouldn’t buy me,” she recalled. “I remember they were $400, and I had to save for the entire year to get them.”

Instilling the value of money in children is as timely as it is important. T. Rowe Price’s 2014 Parents, Kids and Money Survey found that a whopping 94 percent of kids between the ages of 8 and 14 buy things for themselves – and 9 percent have their own credit card.

Working for that money themselves is the only way kids will truly understand how effort, well, pays off, says “Kids, Wealth, and Consequences" author, Jayne Pearl. “It’s how people develop their purpose in life and a sense of self -worth,” Pearl tells Yahoo Parenting. “Self-esteem doesn’t come from being told you’re great. It comes from experience and success in what you create yourself. Money is real world experience.”

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Pearl advocates starting with an allowance for children between the ages of 6 and 8. “It should be tied to financial responsibility,” she says. Her suggestion? Have them pack their lunch the night before school, then allow them to keep the lunch money they would have used. “If they forget lunch, they have to use the money,” she says. And if they forget both, they have to go hungry. “Don’t rescue them,” she insists. “Failure is an important lesson.” Kids learn that without money there’s no food. “And I guarantee they won’t forget their lunch or their money again.”

It’s important to show kids money matters early, after all. Researchers at the University of Cambridge commissioned by the UK’s Money Advice Service report that children’s money habits are formed by age 7.

Talking about money with children can, of course, feel daunting. In fact, 74 percent of parents have some reluctance to discuss financial topics with their kids, according to the T. Rowe Price survey. But Pearl says there are opportunities everywhere you look. “Say you’re buying a car,” she suggests. “Take your children with you when you’re negotiating. Talk about what your values and your criteria are.” Discussing TV commercials, the products and prices, is another easy in, she adds.

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And once you’ve laid the foundation for a positive relationship with money, just step aside and let them get to work. North West, for one, has already begun doing modeling gigs, for Vogue and CR Fashion Book!

Asked what she thought the tot may want to do when she is older, Kardashian’s reply was, as earlier, realistic. “I don’t know,” she said. “She loves fashion. Maybe she’ll be a designer. Who knows? It’s too early to tell.”