DR. WALLACE: My twin sister and I are 13 years old, and we're middle school students. We live in Hawaii, and everything is pretty expensive here because all the items arrive to our state by boat or airplane over a huge ocean, and that makes them more expensive because of the freight over a long distance.

Our parents have decent jobs, and they definitely pay us a fair allowance. But to get this allowance, we have to do a lot of chores every week, and it's like having a small part-time job because we really have to put in several hours each to earn our allowance.

But here's the problem: Now that we are teenagers, we are more independent than when we were little kids, and we sometimes want to go out with our friends to get a small snack or to buy some clothing accessories at a local thrift shop. But instead of being able to use our allowance, our parents deposit the money directly into savings accounts they set up with us a few years ago.

So whenever we want some cash money to spend, even a small amount, we have to go to our parents, and they make a big production out of why it's not good to take money out of our savings accounts. What can we do about this? It seems really unfair because a lot of our friends at school also receive allowances, but they always have money to spend, even if it's only a moderate amount, and my sister and I literally have nothing! — Our Allowance Is Untouchable, via email

OUR ALLOWANCE IS UNTOUCHABLE: I agree with you on this matter. At the age of 13, young teenagers are definitely beginning to grow into their independence, and there's no reason why you couldn't have a modest amount of money each month that you can learn to spend wisely on a few things you would enjoy.

I appreciate that your parents are teaching you the value of money and also building up a savings account, as those are definitely two good things. But in my opinion, they're going overboard. Denying you access to your money — or worse, making you feel guilty for asking for a small amount of it — is setting a very bad precedent.

Discuss matters with your twin, and assuming you're both on the same page, I feel it's fair for the two of you to approach your parents and request one of two options from them. First, ask if you can receive 10% or perhaps 15% of your allowance in cash and have the rest continue to accumulate in savings.

If your parents are unmovable on that matter, ask them if you can do extra chores for 25% more allowance than you normally receive. Let him know that you will save one-third of this extra money in your savings accounts and use two-thirds of the extra amount as your spending money that you would like to have. This is congruent with their teachings of continuing to save, and in fact, you'll be saving even more, assuming they have extra chores or extra work that they're willing to pay you for.

If they're not willing to increase the allowance for more work, this opens the door for the two of you to request that they allow you to do some small work for other members of your community in the neighborhood. You could do some chores or babysitting, provide a dog walking service or any other idea the two of you can come up with. Seeing this well-thought-out plan should hopefully motivate your parents to accept one of these proposals in order to allow the two of you to have a little spending money, which I feel you richly deserve.

I LOVE MUSIC BUT LACK THE TALENT TO PLAY

DR. WALLACE: I'm a high school student, and I love music. I love it so much that I'd like to be a musician someday. But the problem is, I've tried two instruments already without any success at all. I took piano lessons for a full year but never could really catch on to be able to play well.

I also got a guitar and spent a lot of time working on that, but I haven't made anywhere near enough progress to be able to play live in front of an audience. I even have an older brother who's an outstanding guitar player, and he spent a lot of his time teaching me and showing me a lot of chords, notes, tricks and techniques. He can play the guitar very smoothly and effortlessly, but I always seem to be clanging around and not able to keep up anywhere close with the rhythm of a song.

I even tried singing for a while, but I'll admit that I don't have much of a singing voice. What can I do? I'd love to play music or be involved in music, but my talent apparently just isn't there. I should also mention that I have four good friends who are learning various instruments and doing pretty well. They want to form a band, and I was hopeful of joining them, but it looks like that's not going to be my path. — Frustrated Non-Musician, via email

FRUSTRATED NON-MUSICIAN: Sometimes it takes a while before a breakthrough occurs for those trying to pick up an instrument. So if you can hang in there, you could try to continue dabbling, perhaps especially on guitar since your brother is available to continually provide you free guidance.

But while you are doing that, perhaps there's still a role for you. Most young bands and musicians learn to play a few famous songs, and if and when they're good enough to play live somewhere, they usually play these "cover songs" almost exclusively. This is for two reasons: First, the other people will know the songs and listen to them if they are performed reasonably well, and second, young bands typically struggle to come up with ideas for songs, lyrics and melodies.

This is where you might have an opportunity. Do all you can to read and study about songwriting, and see if you can come up with some ideas by putting words together, almost like poetry, and think of topics that you may want to write songs about. It's worth a try, especially since you're so passionate about music overall. And one final suggestion for you: If your good friends do end up forming a band, in addition to maybe helping them with ideas on songwriting, you might be in a position to be their manager. You could hit your brother up for ideas on where to help find opportunities for your friends to play and what is required in order to be able to properly launch a young band.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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