Some day our son will come home from school and say that he wants to get a pet. While it may seem like a great holiday or birthday present, parents need to consider a few things before rushing off to the pet store.
While you can buy a dog from the store for less than $1,000, the costs don’t stop there. I read in the New York Times that a dog can cost $2,000 a year and a cat would set us back $1,200 each year. Over a pet’s lifetime, this can pass the $30,000 mark! That means if the average one income family walks out of a pet store with a couple dogs, they may have unknowingly just spent one full year of their pay cheques.
The other things to consider are the responsibilities of a pet. There’s a lot of feeding, walking, brushing, bathing and “yard cleaning” to do. I’m sure most children will agree to do every pet-related chore, but will they be so eager after a year? While I wouldn’t want all family chores to be attached to allowance, one option that might work is to treat the pet as our child’s job. If we were to add a small bonus allowance for taking care of the pet, our son could learn the responsibilities of a real job.
After taking care of a pet has become part of his routine, we might encourage our child to expand his business. If he’s been walking our dog for the past year, maybe he could offer to walk the neighbourhood dogs as well? Our little entrepreneur would then be able to save for something special for himself, or maybe even something for his pet.
Tom Drake is the owner and head writer behind Canadian Finance Blog and also works as a financial analyst for a major retailer. Tom and his wife Amanda welcomed their beautiful baby boy Christian in October of 2009. To read more of Tom’s posts, subscribe to Canadian Finance Blog’s RSS feed and follow @CanadianFinance on Twitter.
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