Ways for Teens to Earn Money

Like most parents I have struggled to get my kids to do the chores around the house that I need to get done. Now as a grand parent I am witnessing my own children having the same problem with their children so I asked myself what is the real problem with this? Kids and teens seem to just want everything for nothing. They want the latest toys and games and gadgets and stuff, but they don't want to help around the house. Does this sound familiar? Are you a constant source of cash for your kids? Are you treated like their own private ATM?

After many, many hours of investigation into the problem I discovered the reason why this is so. It is because we, as parents do not teach our children the real value of money. Instead, we simply want to provide for them, maybe because we were lacking in our childhood, or maybe because we were never taught about money either. We have chosen to be their own private ATM because we have not taught them how to be their own ATM! Whatever the reason the problem is very real and there is no alternative than to find a workable solution. A solution that solves the problem not in the short term but in the long term.

The first step to the solution is identifying how our own values impact on our financial security. By values I am not referring to the things we cherish such as our favourite car collection or jewellery or property. I am talking about the things that matter most to us such as our family or our career, or our spirituality, or our religion. Values that make us who we are as individuals. When we align these types of values to money we change our value on money and as a consequence we are more likely to earn and keep more money. More importantly, when we teach our kids and teens how to do this we empower them to value, earn and respect money in ways that provide for them well into their adult years.

According to the work of Dr John Demartini, who is without doubt one of the world's leaders in understanding human values and their effects in our lives, unless we can align our values to earning money we will struggle to earn money, or at least keep the money we earn. By aligning our values to money we are more likely to earn and keep more money than we do today. If this is the case then the solution for our kids is to teach them how to align their values with earning money and then how to manage the money they earn.

My experience has been that once my grand children's values were aligned with money and the ability for them to earn money through household chores became evident they became more supportive at home for their parents. My grandchildren actually want to do chores around the house to earn their pocket money to buy the things they want to buy. Learning how to teach your children about money management an at early age allows parents to empower their children with money smarts that will benefit them well into their adult years. Put another way, this means for my children that they do not give their children pocket money as such. Their children actually earn their pocket money and at the same time learn how to budget, plan and manage money.

As a parent and now grandparent I am amazed at how wonderful this is for children today to be able to learn such valuable life skills at such a young age. These skills will be of great value for many years to come. Values that will improve their financial abilities and those of their families. This is a generational thing not a once off occurrence. The works of many people that teahc money lessons are testament to the fact that there are people out there that want to help our kids get better financial education. An education that is not available in the main stream of schooling. School teachers are not necessarily skilled in teaching others about money. In fact, many teachers have money so low on their values that they themselves can struggle with financial matters. Having external resources available to us to assist our families is great. If you want to give your kids a better financial start in life then perhaps you might consider teaching them about money as my children are now doing and as I am doing as a grandparent.

Like me, you may not have all of the necessary skills or knowledge to do this by yourself so I encourage you to search as I have for those around us that do have the skills and know how to do it for us and when you find them use their services. Any investment that you make in your children's financial education is money well invested. Teaching kids about money is like giving them a lifelong legacy. How many topics did we learn at school that are of little or no value to us today? Yet, if you teach your kids about money they will use those skills for their entire life. Now that is what I call education! Oh, by the way. There is another major value for you when you start to teach your kids about money as I have suggested and that is that your kids will start doing more chores around the house without you nagging them to do so. How good is that!


David is an experienced financial adviser and entrepreneur with a passion for helping people realise financial independence through structured learning. As a regular contributor to http://www.MoneyToolkits.com, a site designed specifically to teach kids about money, David is able to share his knowledge and skills with people of all ages from 8 to 80.



By: David H. Nolan