Would you stoop to pick up a found penny? If you believe in the value of money or the possibility of luck, you would. Unless, of course, you're a teenager. When Nuveen Investments asked 1000 kids age 12 to 17 to name the sum they would bother to pick up, 58 percent said a dollar or more. 'Some won't give pocket space to coins even if they're already in hand,' says Neale Godfrey author of Money Doesn't Grow on Trees. Many high schoolers throw away the changes. As one boy explained to her, 'what am I going to do with it?' The cavalier attitude is making some parents rethink the allowance tradition. The weekly stipend is meant to help kids learn about money, but some experts say too much cash--easily handed out in these flush times--and too few obligations can lead to a fiscally irresponsible future. Many kids have a 'lack of understanding (of) how hard it is to earn money,' says Godfrey. 'That is not OK.' Allowances, done right, are a way to teach children to plan ahead and choose wisely, to balance saving spending investing, and even philanthropy. Doing it right means deciding ahead of time how much to give and how often to give it. And it re- quires determining what the child's responsibilities will be. 'About 50 percent of children between 12 and 18 get an allowance or cash from their parents,' says a survey conducted in 1997 by Ohio State university for the U. S Labor Department. The median amount they got was a $ 50 a week. Nationally speaking, about 10 million kids receive a total of around $ 1 billion every week. The problem with a parental open-wallet policy, says Godfrey: 'If you're always given money, why would it have any value to you?' Earned money is spent more wisely, she says. 'You're teaching them that there is not an entitlement program in life. The way you get it is you earn it.' Godfrey thinks an allowance should be chore-based, and she divides work into two categories: citizen-of-the-household chores .and work-for-pay chores. 'The punishment for not doing your workfor-pay chores is you don't get paid.' Other experts including Jayne Pearl, author of Kids and Money, believe that every family member is entitled to a small piece of the financial pie and that it shouldn't be tied to work. Doing so 'complicates things unnecessarily and imbues allowance with power struggles and control is- sues,' says Pearl. 'I think of an allowance as learning capital...They have to have some money to practise with.' 'For many kids 3 is a good time to begin getting all allowance,' experts say. This sounds early, but it's then that children start understanding the notion of exchanging coins for, say, candy. Deciding how much to give can be tough. 'If the parents can afford it, I have them pay their age per week,' says Godfrey. 'A 3-year-old gets $3.' Sound like a lot for a little person? Godfrey's plan takes 10 percent off the top for charity. The remainder is divided into thirds and put into jars. The quick-cash jar 'is for instant gratification'. This spend--as they choose money--means that candy bars, cards, and other impulse buys are no longer paid for by Mom and Dad, which causes kids to curb many impulses. The second jar is for medium-term savings, meant to be spent on medium-ticket luxuries like in-line skates or a CD player. The final jar is invested for the long term, such as for college. Nuveen Investments found that ______.