Should You Pay for Good Grades?

Work as a Family To Find the Best Incentives for School Performance

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Motivating your children to do well in school can be one of the most important—yet challenging —things you can do as a parent. If your children are inspired at a young age to set and achieve long-term goals, and earn good grades in the process, they’re more likely to succeed in the future. But igniting that spark is no easy task.

Perhaps in addition to giving praise and a hug for good grades, you take them out to dinner or to their favorite amusement park. But cash and material items might be more motivational, a recent online poll indicates.

A majority of kids and parents backed “earning for learning.” In fact, three out of four kids, and 60 percent of parents agree that incentives can help reinforce good behavior while helping children learn about money, according to the poll of more than 1,200 parents and children conducted by the Northwestern Mutual Foundation’s financial literacy Web site, Themint.org.