Mummy, Are We Rich?

They finally asked. For pocket money, too. But we have new answers to age-old questions about kids and money, says John Brodie

- John Brodie

Whenever I hear the words ‘pocket money’, my mind wanders back to when I was 14 and I’m walking into the executive dining room of the old Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters. The occasion is lunch with my father. The dining room has the look and feels of a men’s club, albeit one floating in the clouds above lower Manhattan. Waiters in livery. Starched white tablecloths. Business conducted in whispers. It is a sweltering August day, yet my father is cool, clinical, his jet black hair pomaded, his khaki suit pressed crisp.

“So, you will be off to St. Paul’s in a few weeks, and you will need an allowance,” he says. “I’ve decided to give you $35 per month.”

My mind quickly calculates what $35 equals when divided into Rolling Stones albums and fluffernutters at the school snack bar. QED: I’m in for an austere existence. “Forty-five,” I respond. “C’ mon, Dad, $45 would be fair.”

“How do you figure?” he asks. I then proceed to explain, line item by line item, what my projected expenses will be.

“All right, $40,” he says before returning to his shrimp cocktail in a way that indicates the matter is closed. Years later, my father will tell me this ritual was his way of teaching me to make a business case for myself. It was a valuable lesson, in hindsight, but at the time these get-togethers were stressful.