Over time, a little bit of money can be turned into a nice wad of cash. The beauty of being a teen in this day and age is that you have plenty of time to that. The key to getting this money is to make it and save it.
Make money any way you can think of. One easy way is to ask your parents for an allowance. Do chores around the house that your parents are too busy for. Offer to clean the pool, mow the lawn, pull the weeds, go to the grocery store(if you have your license), wash the cars, etc... If you want to make more money, then get an actual job. Look for "now hiring" signs. Work at grocery stores, food places, at your parents work, golf courses, surf shops, the mall, etc...
With the money that you're making it's important that you don't blow it all on clothes, video games, and other "stuff." Buy things that you need, not stuff that you would be cool to play with for a couple of days. Also, don't buy the expensive versions of everything. Here is a great saving method: You don't need to buy the most expensive skater shoe brands for $80. Buy the older on-sale versions that are just as comfortable, work the same, but only cost $40-50. Or you could really save and buy shoes at a sporting good store, or a regular shoe store and get shoes for $20-30. Think of it this way. Let's say in a year you buy 4 pairs of shoes. If you buy four $80 shoes, that's $320 a year. That's almost a $1000 dollars after three years. What's the point? What if you buy 4 pairs of $40 shoes. That's $160 a year, and $480 after three years. What if you went all out and bought 4 pairs of $20 shoes. That's $80 a year (the price of one expensive pair of shoes), and only $240 after 3 years. You save $160 a year if you buy the $40 shoes instead of the $80 shoes. If you really want to save and buy the $20 shoes instead of the $80 shoes, you save $240. Hmmm, which one should I buy? If you don't think you can do that, then control limit yourself to only one or two pairs of the expensive brand of shoe, and buy the discount price shoes the other times and you're still saving money.
Now, what I recommend doing is stashing the money you saved each time in a safe place. So if you buy 4 pairs of shoes: $50, $30, $20, $30. That's a total of $130. If you'd have bought: $80, $70, $70, $80. That's a total of $300 saved. So when you buy the $50 pair of shoes, you stash the $30 saved. When you buy the $20 pair of shoes, you stash the $60 you saved. Then at the end of the year you have $300 you would have spent in your pocket.
No one said saving money had to be hard. The shoe example was just to show you one of the ways to save. If you do the same thing with the clothes you buy, or the fast food you decided not to get, you'll end up with a lot of money in your pocket at the end of the year.
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About the Author
This article was written by Jeff Lieber, designer of mastainc.com. It is an investing web site with free articles, a free newsletter, e-books, and much more. Go to mastainc.com now. Email Jeff at masta@mastainc.com if you have reprinted this article.