Teen jobs....what do they do with their money?

Dictating and strict orders is not the best way but luckily OP was talking about guidelines

That's a good question. I will keep up with this thread for ideas. DS turns 16 tomorrow and I helped get a lead on a social media paid intern position. He interviews for it on Wednesday and it would be making $10/hour (CA's minimum wage).

I like the idea of making him pay for insurance or at least the difference between good student and not so good since his GPA is quite low.

Most of what the peas are suggesting in this thread is dictating and strict orders.

We set goals and guidelines with our kids but we help them adapt to what they are doing, what they need and what their goals are. Car, college etc but we also plan on them giving some of it because we want to ground them in that way of life, spend/save/give because we want them to learn healthy money management so we set up opportunities for them to practice it when the stakes are low rather than having to figure it out when they are adults. Neither of us had good financial edcation as children so we set the guidelines so that they could learn how to handle money well from the beginning. It's all about their goals and how to reach them not about our expectations

Also our kids tend to have very instant gratification personalities, some of them anyways. I have one who wouldn't save a dime if he didn't have somethinf to motivate him and others who were just careless and didn't care about money because it didn't mean much to them till they had to earn it. So that was what I was working with. As a parent I didn't wait to teach money when they wanted. We have expectations for many things in life such as chores, money management, time management,, grades because it is our job as parents to teach those things.

When my sons turned 12, we gave them $500 to invest. They learned about the stock market and how to work it to their advantage. I highly suggest teaching any child about this. Both of my sons worked mowing lawns in the summer. SInce both of the boys were savers, we never put any stipulation on where their money had to go. As a parent, I would think you should read a book or two about teaching your kids about money if you haven't yet. It is also a good thing to give your kids a heads up about when they will be responsible for specific bills as they age. In our house, if you are going to school full time and working, I won't charge you anything. Other than that, you start paying. Kids just need to know how it all works.

I think that's a big part of it. It's true for a lot of kids and for a lot of adults too. That's why so many people run into trouble with rampant consumer debt, living beyond their means, etc. No one seems to want to wait or save up for anything anymore when you can whip out the plastic and have it today, right now.

DH had parents that helped him to have whatever he wanted when he wanted it. They would pay for the stuff up front and he would work to earn the money to pay them back, but still. They basically taught him to buy stuff before he had the means to pay for it and worry about figuring out how to pay for it later. I wasn't raised that way. Being young married people with limited means was very difficult for both of us. It took him a LONG time to learn how to budget and save up for anything, and that lesson would have been much easier to learn if that had been the expectation he was raised with. Thankfully he has always been very self motivated and a hard worker.

I intentionally make our kid wait for stuff, work for stuff and to save up her own money for some of the bigger things she says she wants. I want her to learn early how to work, save, budget and most importantly to WAIT for things so she doesn't feel like she *must* have everything the minute she thinks she wants it just because other kids at her school might have it. We also talk about what it costs to fix or replace things that get lost or broken, and that it's important to be careful with your things so they last. We can't believe how many of our friends readily pay to immediately replace things that their teenage kids carelessly lose or break like cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc. It's like there's no consequence at all for being careless, and that's not how real life works.

They made business cards on the computer and put up signs.  Kids generally mow for a lot less than the mowing companies will, so they always had yards close by.  They both had 5-8 yards per summer, so the money was good.  They got between $25-$40 a lawn and could do all of it in two days, so if the weather was bad they could still do it all in a week.  I would also say that neighbors of their clients would ask and that gave them about half of their lawns.  

They both had a fit when they got "real jobs" and learned about FICA and SS.  My youngest has a job this summer with an engineering firm four days a week.  He makes us the fifth day's pay by mowing two lawns (about 60 minutes of work).  

I don't think that math adds up.

We didn't have any rules just watched at first what she was doing with her money. She knew that we would match any savings for her first car. Well she saved like crazy for 2.5 years and before we knew it she had $7000 saved! It was a great lesson for her in seeing her money build up and knowing what she could do with it.

I do think they need to have frivolous money to spend on clothes and other stuff. They earn the money so should be able to have fun with some of it too.

My parents required me to pay for my car insurance, most of my gas and I had to put 20% in savings at 16.

I waited tables and made pretty great tips as well. My insurance was around $100/month.

10% of the savings went to true savings, the other 10% went to expenses like tires, etc. I had a beater car with no payment. The rest of my money went to going out to eat, movies and shopping with my friends.

When I was living at home, I had a job where I made a salary plus really good tips. I paid a set amount to my parents for clothes and such, from the salary and the tips, then the remaining salary went into a savings acct and I spent the remaining tips at my discretion.

J

That's great!  You must be so proud of him.  It's so impressive to hear about a teen that is good with money.