A cornerstone of building a sound financial future for your teenager is to teach him or her her how to save money. Sounds easy, but even many adults don't know how to do it. And that could be because no one ever taught them. Parents can show their teens ways to save money by serving real-life examples.
The tips on how to save money are easy to use. In fact, there are no complications involved. Patience and persistence are needed, sure, but no special education or knowledge is required. Here's a list of ways to save money specially created for teens.
1.Do not put your computer in "standby" mode. Instead, shut it down. Do same with the monitor. While the power consumption in standby mode is little, it still adds up over the year. Same applies to all electronic appliances. 2.Take shower instead of bath. This will lower water bills tremendously. Also, use the possibilities to take shower outside home. For me, with two weekly visits to a swimming pool, it's easy and natural. 3.If you do not plan to buy anything, then do not take cash when leaving home. If you have no cash in the purse or pocket, you can't spend it. Sounds simple and works great. 4.Have your parents open a savings account for you. Depending on the financial institution, your starting deposit can be as low as 1 dollar. Not much, right? But with due attitude and dedication, you'll start making a small fortune pretty quickly. 5.Pay yourself first. Set aside part of your income for savings, before spending anything. When give allowance or any unexpected sum of money, take out 10% of it and save. Make a habit of spending less than you get. It will help to pave the way for financially prosperous future. 6.Set goals that appeal to you. Decide what you want -- a multimedia computer or a bike? Perhaps your parents will add some 10% of the sum. When you want something badly, saving is easier. 7.Plan major purchases ahead. Same applies to parties. Wait at least a week or so before purchasing. Chances are, you will change your mind or the price will drop. In both cases, you win. 8.Monthly allowance will teach you to save and spend wise. When you have to cover a month of expenses, the temptation to spend half of the allowance at once won't seize you. 9.Keep a checkbook. It's an old-fashioned method to put down records of all money received and spent. Doing so helps teens know where they stand financially. Analyzing your records over the month you'll discover where you could spend less, or when you bought something you didn't really need. 10.Get a piggy bank for a change. Use only dollar bills when paying. When the year is over, you'll have a lump sum of saved money to buy Christmas gifts.
By saving money teens learn patience and persistence. Every teen who embraces even one of these habits is well on his or her way to financial stability. It doesn't really matter how many of these tips you try to use. Start with just one, and when mastered enough, get to another. Saving money is what makes teens financially aware for the adult life.
There are tons of different ways for teens to make money, the challenge is finding the method that suits you the best. Many young and even experienced entrepreneurs simply don't realize that success often has a direct relationship to knowledge and enjoyment, in other words, if you enjoy doing something and have a fair amount of knowledge on the subject you are more likely to make money doing it.
You may not even realize it but being a teen entrepreneur actually has its advantages. Think about many of the very profitable sites online these days, lets take MySpace for example. MySpace is extremely popular around the world, they make a fortune and the site has been built with young people in mind, everything about the social community screams teenager, from the flashy colors to the functions many of you have grown to love. Now, who do you think would know the most about what teens want out of a website, I would put my money on other teens. Being a teen yourself gives you the advantage of knowing what other teens want, you know the popular music and whats in style and you can build a site that caters to those people, that alone is a tremendous advantage over other "older" webmasters.
Every entrepreneur, young and old, has to have a foundation to build their ideas on and that is exactly what this article is meant to be, a foundation. You can use any of the ideas in this article just as they are, or you can stretch your imagination and call on your creativity to build on these ideas and make them even bigger and better than anyone else has done. So just how many ways for teens to make money are out there, its limited only to how many you can come up with, maybe its time to let your imagination out of the box, here are 5 ideas to get you started:
1. Building and Managing Websites - New webmasters are popping up all over the place. People whom have never imagined running websites are quitting their day jobs and making money online and there are so many more opportunities floating around, just waiting to be snatched up by you.
2. Blogging - One of my favorite ways to make money online is blogging. There are a couple of options here, you can opt to create an authority blog on your favorite subject and sell advertising space as popularity grows or you can build niche blogs and use cpc advertising to make money from search traffic. Both have their benefits and both methods can be very profitable, which one suits you best?
3. Virtual Assistant - Lets face it, most teenagers are more experienced online than some of the older guys that have used the Internet for a longer period of time, that give you an edge up in the world of virtual assisting. Virtual assistants tend to do a little of everything for webmasters and you can find these opportunities in webmaster forums and freelance work exchanges.
4. Affiliate Marketing - Affiliate marketing is a great way for teens to make money, because its easy once you learn the ropes, its highly profitable and usually requires less time than say, starting an authority blog or website. Stay away from the ebooks and other schemes, try learning in the forums and from the best marketers to avoid the hype or junk.
5. Freelance Work - Freelance writing, freelance web design and other freelance opportunities pay the bills for many online entrepreneurs and age seems to be no boundary in this field.
Have you started to see some of the possibilities available to you? As I mentioned above, the secret is using your creativity to build on ideas and create something new and exciting that people haven't seen yet. Hope you enjoy!
Both Kellywright & Jessica Donnovan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Kellywright has sinced written about articles on various topics from Aquarium Fish, Adwords and Teenagers. Head over to tips that will help you .Kelly Wright is writing articles on budgeting, parenting and financial managem. Kellywright's top article generates over 60500 views. to your Favourites.
Jessica Donnovan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Real Estate, Property Agents and Teenagers. J.Donnovan provides more along with information to. Jessica Donnovan's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.